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Tuesday, August 14, 2007
NPA to release abducted soldier (3:08 p.m.)
MANILA - Communist guerrillas said Tuesday they have decided to release a soldier captured during an ambush last week after a rebel investigation showed he had not committed any human rights abuses.
New People's Army rebels captured Marjun Gatela, of the Army's 72nd Infantry Battalion, in an ambush of pro-government militiamen on Friday in which they killed a militiaman and wounded two others on the outskirts of the gold-mining township of Monkayo, police said.
Gatela will be released to his family when conditions allow it, the rebels said in a statement. "Gatela has not committed serious crimes against the people on his own individual volition," said the statement, posted on a rebel
website.
Police Superintendent Ronald dela Rosa of southern Compostela Valley province, which includes Monkayo, welcomed the rebel move, saying it showed "they're capable of acting like humans."
The rebels have an active presence in Compostela Valley, a mountainous province 940 kilometers southeast of Manila.
The guerrillas also freed a soldier from weeks of detention in May after his family appealed for his freedom in Davao Oriental province, near Compostela.
In 2004, the rebels captured two Army officers during a clash in a mountainous area about 300 kilometers southeast of Manila. They were freed after five months. (AP) |
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