CHR clears troops in tribesman’s shooting

DAVAO CITY – Filipino and American soldiers who arrested a suspected Abu Sayyaf member in Tuburan, Basilan Thursday last week were cleared yesterday of any human rights violations.

Investigators of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said the soldiers did not trample on the human rights of Buyong Buyong Isnijal who was reportedly shot and wounded before he was placed under arrest.

Ciriaco Jabido Jr., CHR regional director for Southern Mindanao, said evidence they have gathered showed that the arrest of Isnijal went through due process of law.

"Isnijal has been facing several warrants of arrest for murder, rape and other criminal cases," he said.

Jabido said there was no evidence that US troops had taken part in the raid on Isnijal’s house nor that an American soldier had shot the suspect.

"There were no conclusive findings regarding the presence of US soldiers in the house of Isnijal," he said.

Jabido said the soldiers did not intend to kill Isnijal because he was immediately given first aid and "expensive" anti-biotics brought by the Americans.

"The chief of hospital in the neighboring town of Lamitan, who treated Isnijal reported that only one wound was found in his left thigh," he said.

The wound was believed to have been caused by a bullet that entered the rear portion of Isnijal’s thigh before exiting through the front.

According to the medical report, the trajectory was flat which could indicate that Isnijal might have tried to flee as the soldiers came to arrest him.

Earlier, Bayan Muna sectoral Representatives Satur Ocampo and Liza Maza accused "an African-American soldier" whom they identified as "Sgt. Reggie Lane" of shooting the 27-year-old Isnijal.

But the United States Embassy said in a statement last Monday said the American soldier, Reginald Lay, might have saved the life of Isnijal and branded as "patently false" the accusations of Ocampo and Maza.

"The US Embassy categorically denies the assertions of involvement by US service personnel in a shooting incident in Basilan," read the embassy statement.

Lt. Gen. Ernesto Carolina, Armed Forces Southern Command chief, said a Philippine Army soldier from the 18th Infantry Battalion shot Isnijal because he tried to grab the Armalite rifle of a member of the raiding team.

Carolina said the Filipino soldiers then sought the help of Lay– a US Army medic–who immediately gave first aid to Isnijal.

Isnijal was later taken to battalion headquarters in Barangay Camp Uno in Tuburan and then to the Lamitan District Hospital, he added. –Edith Regalado