Tuesday, September 02, 2008 Report: Military attacking non-renegade MILF
GOVERNMENT soldiers are allegedly attacking Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) base commands that are not under the three MILF renegade commanders being hunted down by authorities.
In a report, the MILF claimed that the Armed Forces of the Philippines attacked MILF forces at some barangays of Talitay, Talayan, and Guindulungan, all of Maguindanao.
Some 500 AFP troops supported by air and artillery assets conducted the operations against the MILF.
The Muslim secessionist group said that punitive actions of the military and police must only be directed against the 105th Base Command of Commader Ameril Umbra Kato and 102nd Base Command of Commander Abullah Macapaar alias Kumander Bravo.
"However, other units of the MILF such as the 104th Base Command, 107th Base Command, MILF Central Committee Task Force Ittihad based in Maguindanao, and Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Elements (JCMEs) of the government- MILF ceasefire committee had been strongly pounded by the indiscriminate offensives of the government," the MILF said.
Seven innocent civilians were allegedly wounded as a result of the "indiscriminate firing of the military."
"Several Muslim houses were burned by armed civilians in Barangays Dungguan, Langayen, and Tapodoc of Aleosan and in some baragays of Pigcawayan but no stopping such atrocities by the government authorities, nay, public pronouncement condemning such commission of crime and bringing to the bar of justice the perpetrators," the rebel group said.
The MILF warned that if these actions keep on, communal and ethnic war is not far off.
AFP chief of staff General Alexander Yano earlier warned other MILF base commanders not to aid renegade MILF commanders Ameril Umbra Kato, Adbullah Macapaar alias Kumander Bravo, and Solaiman Pangalian or suffer their fate.
In an interview in Dipolog City Friday, Yano said they've been receiving reports that other MILF base commanders have been helping the three renegade commanders with logistics and warm bodies.
He warned that if they do so, then they will also be hunted by the AFP.
"We will not be able to distinguish one from the other. Anyone who fights the AFP will be dealt with similarly," Yano warned.
MILF's 102nd, 103rd and 105th base commands of Kato, Bravo and Pangalian are now being hunted by the military for the atrocities they committed. Yano said though that seven other base commands are potential supporters of the three renegades.
He explained though that the 102nd, 103rd, and 105th comprise the majority bloc of the total MILF forces in Mindanao and the remaining seven are negligible.
