Sulu relief effort launched

COTABATO CITY — A massive relief effort has been launched for nearly 1,000 families displaced by the conflict in Sulu even as Abu Sayyaf bandits resumed their attacks against the military yesterday.

Government officials in the region urged the military to allow relief workers access to hostile spots in the province to deliver food and vital provisions to civilians affected by fierce clashes over the past five days.

Due to fears of getting caught in the crossfire, relief workers only managed to attend to the needs of some 200 of the 915 families driven out of their homes by the hostilities, said Ruby Sahali, social welfare secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The attack was perpetrated by combined members of the Abu Sayyaf and the Misuari Breakaway Group (MBG), a splinter group of the Moro National Liberation Front, whose members are identified with jailed ex-ARMM governor and former MNLF leader Nur Misuari.

Citing reports from the office of Sulu Gov. Benjamin Loong, ARMM Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan said there could be more than 10,000 people affected by the hostilities that have left 24 dead.

"I’m appealing to the two groups to end the fighting and to reposition away from these towns to enable our relief workers to attend to the needs of the evacuees," said Ampatuan, who chairs the provincial peace and order council.

According to Sahali, evacuees from the neighboring towns of Indanan, Panglima Estino and Panamao are now confined in public school campuses, awaiting food and medical supplies. The four towns were the scenes of gun battles that erupted November when Abu Sayyaf members attacked a Marine patrol in Indanan.

"Some of them are in schools which can only be reached through farm-to-market roads that are still closed. The roads have to be opened for our workers to get through and account for all the evacuees," Sahali told The STAR.

Fighting temporarily ceased on Tuesday, with the military putting the death toll at four on their side and at least 20 among the Abu Sayyaf members.

But the bandits yesterday resumed attack, firing a heavy barrage of mortars that pounded civilian areas in Panamao.

A newly renovated mosque and houses were destroyed, the military said.

On the part of the government, Army Rangers from the 2nd Scout Ranger Battalion also overran another tactical base of the Abu Sayyaf in Indanan yesterday.

The Abu Sayyaf camp was the third to fall as the military continued its clearing offensives against the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf.

Col. Domingo Jimenez Tutaan Jr., spokesman for and chief of staff of the Southern Command (Southcom), said the Abu Sayyaf launched four rounds of mortar hitting Barangay Siit at about 6:45 a.m.

Tutaan said another round was fired about 9:15 a.m. at the same area where the base of the Marine Battalion Landing Team 4 (MBLT) is adjacently located.

"We did not suffer any casualties. The projectiles did not hit their targets. Unfortunately, the attack partially destroyed the newly renovated mosque and destroyed some of the housing units built recently for the evacuees," Tutaan said.

The military said no civilian casualties were reported in the attacks as many of them had already been evacuated.

Ampatuan approved yesterday an initial grant of P300,000 to be used to procure rice for distribution to the evacuees.

Sahali said Ampatuan promised to augment the funds if more relief supplies were needed.

Sahali said political and religious leaders have given assurances that they would help convince the leaders of the Abu Sayyaf and the MBG in affected towns not to harm the relief workers when they distribute the supplies from Jolo, capital town of Sulu.

The latest reported attack in Panamao was perpetrated by the same Abu Sayyaf and MBG gunmen that attacked the Marines and pillaged houses in the same village last February, according to local government officials.

The same Siit mosque was also destroyed in the February attack.

Armando de Rosi, a non-government organization, has supplied funding for the renovation of the mosques and water facility of Barangay Siit.

The rebels immediately fled after sensing the presence of the Marines during a reconnaissance operation.

Tutaan said another tactical base of the Abu Sayyaf fell Wednesday morning from the pursuing Army Scout Rangers in Buud Purot also in the mountains of Indanan.

The camp was used by the group of wanted Abu Sayyaf leaders Umbra Jumdail alias Dr. Abu Pula and Albadder Parad, Tutaan said.

He said the camp has foxholes, mess halls and bunkers as well as running trenches which the troops believed the Abu Sayyaf were forced to hastily abandon to escape the military offensive.

During his visit to Jolo, Southcom chief Lt. Gen. Edilberto Adan directed troops to exhaust all means to neutralize the Abu Sayyaf and its allied forces to restore the stability in the island province.

Brig. Gen. Alexander Aleo, anti-terror Joint Task Force Comet chief said there were enough forces in the province and there were no immediate plans yet to deploy more soldiers.

Bomber planes have been placed on standby from the nearby Philippine Air Force base in Zamboanga City.

Aleo said there was no air strike so far as the military entered its fifth day of offensives.

The Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for a series of bombings in the southern Philippines and in Manila since 2002.

The group, linked by security officials to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda and the regional militant network Jemaah Islamiyah, claimed responsibility for the worst terror attack in the Philippines — the bombing of a ferry near Manila in February 2004 that killed more than 100 people. — John Unson, Roel Pareño, AFP, Reuters