Suspected Abu man claims American GI shot him

An alleged Abu Sayyaf member captured in July maintained his claim that an American soldier shot him in an operation conducted jointly with Philippine troops.

"I am very positive that the soldier who shot me twice was a black American because I am familiar with them as I have seen some of them during a civic action activity," Buyung-Buyung Isnijal said in a three-page affidavit.

The complaint was made public yesterday by a leftist group that investigated alleged military abuses in Basilan, an Abu Sayyaf stronghold in Mindanao.

According to Philippine military officials, Isnijal was captured on July 25 in his house in Tuburan, Basilan, by Philippine troops sent to arrest him for murder and rape charges.

He was later shot in the leg by a Filipino soldier when he tried to escape.

Isnijal’s affidavit stated, however, two Filipino soldiers and a black American soldier broke down the door of his hut just after midnight, rousing him, his wife, his mother and a niece from sleep.

The soldiers barked an order for him to sit down and the American soldier – who Isnijal said was wearing night-vision goggles – shoved him to the floor and pinned him down with his boot.

The soldier then shot his left thigh and left buttock. Isnijal said his family witnessed everything.

The soldiers then ransacked the hut looking for a gun he allegedly used, Isnijal’s affidavit stated. He also denied the criminal charges against him.

Isnijal said he was then taken to the military’s Southern Command headquarters in nearby Zamboanga City and was forced to confess on video that a Filipino soldier – not an American – had shot him.

Bayan Muna, which led the fact-finding mission, said the incident proved that the Philippine government had violated the constitutional prohibition barring foreign troops from fighting on local soil.

About a thousand US troops concluded in July an annual joint exercise to train Philippine forces on anti-terrorist tactics in Basilan.

"Now we’ve heard it straight from the horse’s mouth," said Bayan Muna Rep. Liza Maza. "Isnijal himself has confirmed that there were American soldiers present when he was shot and that it was an American soldier who shot him."

Party-list Rep. Crispin Beltran, also of Bayan Muna, urged the government to look into Isnijal’s accusations while party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo said the incident was enough ground to scrap annual joint military exercises between the US and the Philippines.

Bayan Muna and several other leftist groups conducted a fact-finding mission in Basilan in late July and claimed rampant human rights abuses by Philippine troops on villagers, a charge denied by the government.