Relatives bury Sayyaf prison casualties

Hundreds of Muslims took part in a funeral procession in Taguig yesterday to bury the remains of 22 suspected Abu Sayyaf inmates killed in a bloody prison revolt as security forces went on high alert for possible retaliatory attacks.

Angry mourners accused prison authorities of torturing the inmates at the Camp Bagong Diwa detention center, where a 30-hour uprising led by some members of the Abu Sayyaf militant group was crushed by hundreds of police on Tuesday.

Relatives of the victims raised clenched fists and yelled "Allahu Akbar!" — God is great — as they carried the bodies in white blankets to a mass grave. A Muslim cleric recited a prayer before relatives pushed earth over the bodies using shovels and hands.

Many relatives criticized the government for the attack, believing the inmates had been mercilessly killed and falsely made to appear as though they had put up a fight with smuggled weapons.

Sultan Panangan Pangandaman, a Muslim leader in Maharlika Village, told reporters that the killing of the 22 "was an exceptional case because they were under oppression."

Pangandaman explained it is their custom to bury the inmates in their bloodied clothes because they were now considered martyrs.

On the other hand, President Arroyo and leaders of the Muslim community called for calm amid threats of retaliation by the Abu Sayyaf.

Senior police officials met with Muslim leaders to help calm passions stoked by the bloody end to the prison siege.

Datu Ambiong Amerol, chairman of the Metro Manila Muslim Peace and Order Coordinating Council, said he had given assurances "that no one would plot revenge for what happened" in the jail siege.

Community leaders are under instructions to "dissuade residents from taking up the Abu Sayyaf cause," Ambiong said. "If we cannot discipline them, we will alert the authorities immediately so they could suppress these groups," he said.

Two of the negotiators who unsuccessfully tried to end the standoff peacefully meanwhile appealed for sobriety and understanding in the bloody assault.

"There is anger and sadness, but this is a reality we must accept," Anak Mindanao Rep. Mujiv Hataman said.

Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Farouk Hussin, for his part, also appealed for understanding among Muslims.

"We appeal for sobriety and understanding. What we can do now is to pray and mourn for the loss of lives. They are now in the hands of our Creator," Hussin said.

Ambiong, for his part, urged the Taguig City government to provide material aid to relatives of the dead Abu Sayyaf detainees to help pay for the costs of their travel to Manila from Mindanao to attend the burials.

He also called on law enforcers to uphold the human rights of Muslims, accusing some policemen of "overkill" in the random arrests of Muslims suspected of terrorist attacks attributed to the Abu Sayyaf.

"Some policemen hold the view that all Muslims are evil. But Muslims are also Filipinos," Ambiong noted.

Ambiong alleged that some of the arrested Muslim terror suspects, including those accused of joining Monday’s prison revolt, were being held unconstitutionally since "there have been no court hearings on their cases since their arrests."

The Muslim leader, however, failed to cite specific cases to support his allegations.

‘Tortured’

Twenty-two Abu Sayyaf bandits were killed in the police operation, with senior leaders Ghalib Andang, alias Commander Robot, and Alhamser Limbong, alias Commander Kosovo, among the dead.

Andang had been on trial for the kidnapping of foreign tourists from the Malaysian resort island of Sipadan in 2000.

Limbong was being held for the bombing of a ferry near Manila Bay last year in which over 100 people died and for the kidnapping of a group of tourists at a Palawan resort in 2001, in which two American hostages were killed.

Relatives and residents of Maharlika village prayed over the bodies of the slain suspects at a mosque.

The dead were then wrapped in white shrouds and plastic mats before being carried to a nearby Muslim cemetery, where a shallow mass grave awaited them.

About 500 residents, including women dressed in traditional Muslim garb which left only their faces uncovered, joined the mid-morning funeral march.

"Stop the torture," shouted a woman who declined to give her name as the other mourners clutched at fistfuls of earth to cover the grave. "They are still beating the survivors back in the prison," she claimed.

"They are students," claimed another woman, referring to some of the dead, who were laid to rest lying on their side facing west toward the holy Islamic city of Mecca.

Residents say all the dead have been identified, and all of them were adherents of Islam.

One policeman was also killed in the assault, while three jail guards and two other prisoners were slain when the attempted jailbreak began on Monday. — With Christina Mendez, Nestor Etolle, Benjie Villa, Jess Diaz, AFP