Failure of intelligence led to clash with SAF troops
Officials of two units of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are facing disciplinary action for failure of intelligence that helped spark the Jan. 25 Mamasapano incident, according to senior MILF official Ghazali Jaafar (shown in photo). RYAN LEAGOGO/INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
Officials of two units of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are facing disciplinary action for failure of intelligence that helped spark the Jan. 25 Mamasapano incident, according to senior MILF official Ghazali Jaafar.
In a phone interview with the Inquirer on Wednesday, Jaafar,
MILF vice chair for political affairs, said the group’s 105th Base Command and
118th Base Command failed to monitor the entry of Malaysian-born terrorist
Zulkifli bin Hir, alias “Marwan,” and his Filipino associate, Basit Usman, into
Mamasapano.
The two units also failed to monitor and report the entry of
Philippine National Police Special Action Force (SAF) commandos into
Tukanalipao village in Mamasapano on Jan. 25, Jaafar said.
MILF investigators will talk to officials and members of the
two units, Jaafar said.
“After talking to them, we will decide what kind of
disciplinary action will be imposed (on them), and one is possible suspension,”
he said.
“Disciplinary action like suspension runs for several
months,” he said. “After serving the suspension, they could be reinstated to
their posts or not.”
Base commanders
The MILF 105th Base Command is led by Zacaria Goma and the
118th by Wahid Tundok.
Eid Kabalu, a former spokesman for the MILF, said suspension
comes with the stripping of one’s title and cutting off supplies.
Citing the case of Ameril Umra Kato, the former commander of
the 105th Base Command, Kabalu said the MILF leadership imposed a six-month
suspension.
“They were not allowed to carry or use their firearms,
[which] were stored inside the camp and logistical support was cut off,” Kabalu
said.
He said Kato was suspended in 2005 after the commander and
his men attacked a military detachment in Mamasapano, a violation of the
ceasefire agreement with the government.
Kato and his unit were also behind the attacks on civilian
communities in 2008, after the Supreme Court declared a peace agreement between
the MILF the administration of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
unconstitutional.
Kato and his group broke away from the MILF and formed the
Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), whose fighters entered the clash
site after MILF guerrillas withdrew on Jan. 25, complying with a call for a
ceasefire, the MILF said.
At a news conference in Manila
“We want to find out why, if they knew Marwan was there,
they did not report it to their immediate superiors,” he said.
Jaafar said the MILF Central Committee would also
investigate allegations that members of the MILF coddled Marwan and Usman.
Mamasapano clash
SAF commandos infiltrated into Moro rebel-controlled
Mamasapano early on Jan. 25 to capture Marwan, Usman and Malaysian-born terrorist
Amin Baco.
They killed Marwan in a gun fight in his hut in Tukanalipao
(the MILF says the hut is in Pembalkan village), but Usman and Baco escaped.
As they withdrew from the town, the SAF commandos were set
upon by guerrillas from the BIFF, MILF, Justice for Islamic Movement (JIM) and
armed residents of the area.
Forty-four SAF commandos, 17 MILF guerrillas and three
civilians were killed in a gun battle that lasted for 12 hours.
Police and Senate investigators found that the failure of
the SAF to coordinate the counterterrorism mission with the military and the
ceasefire committees of the government and the MILF was the main cause of the
clash between the commandos and the Moro rebels.
The MILF also investigated the incident and blamed the clash
on the lack of coordination, which is required for law enforcement under the
ceasefire agreement between the government and the Moro insurgent group.
In its investigation report submitted to the Senate on
Tuesday, the MILF said the SAF commandos fired the first shots, killing two
MILF guerrillas.
The MILF fighters responded and with their superior numbers
and knowledge of the terrain, prevailed, the report said.
DOJ investigation
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is also investigating the
clash, with the deadline for the submission of a report getting extended on
Wednesday to April 16.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima the DOJ National Prosecution
Service and the National Bureau of Investigation had asked for a two-week
extension because they were still interviewing witnesses.
“Their original deadline is April 2, which is next week, and
it’s also Holy Week. I think their request is reasonable,” De Lima told
reporters.
She said the DOJ received the reports of the Senate and the
MILF on Wednesday.
The DOJ investigation would consider the reports, along with
the report of the PNP board of inquiry, in producing its own investigation
report, she said.
“These will be considered in the evaluation and the sourcing
of facts and information. In fact, [the investigative team] will be inviting
those mentioned in the [police] report for clarificatory questioning. I’m
stressing that since our interest is criminal liability, the reports are a big
help, although we also have our own sources of facts and evidence,” De Lima
said.
Cause of deaths, injuries
The MILF investigation report said the failure of intelligence
at the 105th and 118th Base Commands resulted in the deaths of 17 MILF
combatants and three civilians, and injuries to 25 MILF fighters and four
civilians.
It said that while the huts occupied by Marwan and Usman
were in Pembalkan village, some 3 kilometers away from the MILF communities,
“good intelligence operation” should have enabled the 105th and 118th Base
Commands to detect and report the presence of the terrorists there.
“The laxity exhibited by the two base commands, perhaps
influenced by overconfidence in the relative peace obtaining in their
communities brought about by the ceasefire agreement with the government and
the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, should not go
unnoticed. This attitude should not be tolerated,” the report said.
It said Marwan was killed in Pembalkan and the hut that he
occupied was owned by an MILF fighter named Baguindali who died in 2008. The
MILF did not know that Marwan and Usman had moved to Pembalkan, the report
added.
“When Marwan was killed, he was with the group of Basit
Usman in the vicinity where the BIFF and the breakaway group of Mohammad Ali
Tambako are based,” the report said.
Tambako is the leader of the JIM. He was arrested in a
combined military and police operation in General Santos City on March 15.
Usman’s hut is located some 119 meters away from Marwan’s.
Both huts are surrounded by corn farms and banana plants and isolated from
other houses in Pembalkan, the MILF report said.
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/681375/2-milf-units-face-sanctions
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.