Refugees returning to their village in Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat were forced to return to the town gym when the commander of a Moro Islamic Liberation Front unit refused passage to Marines escorting the displaced persons home.
Municipal administrator Zahra Maulana said the 500 residents of the upland village of Napnapon, who had been staying at the town gym for a month, were being ferried home in Marine trucks Friday morning when they were stopped from proceeding to the village by MILF fighters led by Commander Teng Binago.
The refugees, mostly women and children, fled after a land dispute between Binago and another MILF commander led to fighting.
“The refusal of Commander Binago (to let the trucks pass) triggered tension because there was already an arrangement that the military will escort the displaced families back home,” Maulana said, adding that they have sought the intervention of the joint government and MILF ceasefire monitoring panel.
Maulana said Binago would only allow the refugees passage if no soldiers entered Napnapon.
But the town official said the village is not within the identified MILF-controlled territories where the entry of government forces would require coordination.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/119355/milf-commander-bars-marines-from-ferrying-refugees-home-in-sultan-kudarat-town
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.