Friday, July 20, 2007 International team probes Basilan encounter By Ben O. Tesiorna
THE Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) welcomed the decision of the Malaysian government allowing the International Monitoring Team (IMT) to investigate the July 10 clash in Basilan.
The Basilan incident was feared to affect the peace negotiations between the MILF and the Philippine government.
In a statement posted on its website, the MILF said its peace panel received a formal notice on the matter Wednesday.
It was learned that the IMT could not proceed to Basilan without Malaysia's approval since Basilan is not included in the IMT's terms of reference.
Malaysia, being the host country of the Philippine government-MILF peace talks, has the authority to send the Malaysia-led IMT to the island.
MILF peace panel secretariat chair Jun Mantawil said Malaysia's decision is a "good development" hoping that with the entry of the IMT "the truth will soon come out."
The MILF said they are hoping that the IMT-led investigating body would finally determine which party really violated the ceasefire agreement that led to the bloody encounter in Basilan.
Mantawil said they also hope the IMT will clarify how many were really killed in the Basilan encounter and reveal the victims’ identities.
The government claimed 14 Marine soldiers were killed in the encounter, but the MILF said they killed 23 Marines while they suffered five casualties.
The MILF added that they seized 17 high-powered firearms from the clash site that were left behind by government troops.
The MILF said an imam (Muslim cleric) was also killed along with the Marines. This was, however, earlier denied by the military, saying no civilians were killed in the incident.
In an interview in Davao City Thursday, Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff General Hermogenes Esperon said they are looking into the MILF claims regarding the death of an imam and the 23 bodies found in the encounter site.
He said if the MILF claim is indeed true, then the remaining nine bodies that were unaccounted for could give them information on the identities of the people who beheaded the Marine soldiers.
Esperon also met with field commanders in Eastern Mindanao Thursday to discuss, plan, and assess their internal security operations (ISO) in the light of the worsening conflict in Basilan.
Esperon met with various division and brigade commanders inside the Naval Headquarters in Panacan. With him in the conference was Eastern Mindanao Command Chief Rodolfo Obaniana.
Also on Thursday, Esperon met his commanders from the Western Mindanao area at the Western Mindanao Command headquarters in Zamboanga City.
Esperon said the conference is part of their scheduled 1st semester assessment on their ISO.
Brigadier General Edgardo Gurrea, chief of the government-Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities, said the entry of the IMT in the Basilan investigation has yet to be confirmed, as they have yet to receive an official notice from the Malaysian government regarding the IMT's fact-finding body.
Gurrea said the IMT entry is however very much welcomed so as to ferret out the truth and provide transparency on the separate investigations conducted by the MILF and the Philippine government on the said incident.
At the moment, only the MILF-CCCH and the Philippine government-CCCH are conducting investigation on the Basilan incident, alongside with the police investigation.
The two panels have started drafting last July 18 the guidelines on how best to carry out the fact-finding mission in Basilan.
National Security Adviser and acting Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales flew to Malaysia to formally ask officials there to look into the incident.
Malaysia is the third party facilitator in the peace talks between the Philippine government and the MILF.
