‘Suspend peace negotiations with MILF’

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao — Sectors sympathetic to the family of Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan have urged the government to suspend peace negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front pending the arrest of MILF rebels implicated in the Dec. 24 bombing that left Ampatuan’s mayor-son and 16 other people dead.

Muslim religious leaders in the province have also called on the government and MILF panels to expedite an inquiry into the incident by their joint technical committees on cessation of hostilities to ease tension between the Ampatuans and their supporters and the MILF forces in Datu Piang, Maguindanao.

Datu Piang Mayor Saudi Ampatuan and his brother-in-law and municipal treasurer Nasut Macapendeg were among those killed in the bomb blast, which authorities blamed on the MILF. The Ampatuans have long supported the military’s pacification efforts in the province.

"The longer we prolong the efforts of determining who could be responsible for the attack, the more the tension and animosity between the two camps will escalate," said an influential ustadz (Muslim preacher), who asked not to be identified.

Engineer Norie Unas, Maguindanao’s provincial administrator, said the provincial peace and order council will issue this week its stand on the clamor of various sectors for the suspension of the peace talks with the MILF until it cooperates in putting those responsible for the bombing behind bars.

"However, this would not mean that the provincial leadership is rejecting the peace talks for good. Gov. Ampatuan has always been supportive of the government-MILF talks and will remain as such because he is aware that the peace and order problems in areas where MILF forces are scattered are best addressed through negotiations," Unas said.

Al-Haj Murad, MILF vice chairman for military affairs, issued from Malaysia on Friday a written denial of any involvement of their forces in the Datu Piang bombing.

Murad said the MILF peace panel, which he chairs, is ready to cooperate with its government counterpart to determine who were really behind the bombing.

Col. Agustin Dema-ala, commander of the Army’s 301st Infantry Brigade, has linked a certain "Commander Rambo" of the MILF to the blast, which also seriously injured nine other people, now confined in different hospitals in Cotabato City.

Dema-ala said they have witnesses who saw at least four followers of Commander Rambo near the blast site. The homemade bomb was fashioned from an 81-mm mortar and live 40-mm grenade projectiles, packed with nails and mechanical bolts and rigged with an improvised battery-operated, remote-controlled blasting mechanism.

Gov. Ampatuan’s relative, Capt. Taharudin Piang-Ampatuan of the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Bonifacio, said he would send the government and MILF panels his own appeal for the temporary suspension of the peace talks to allow them to jointly investigate the bombing.

"I will ask both panels, on behalf of the Piang and Ampatuan families, to jointly look into mounting reports, both from the civilian and military sectors, that certain MILF members were involved in the atrocity," the Mindanao Cross, a Catholic newspaper in Cotabato City, quoted him as saying.

Raps over Zamboaga ambush

Meanwhile, the military said it would file a complaint with government negotiators alleging a ceasefire violation by the MILF for the deadly ambush on workers of Toronto Ventures Inc. (TVI) Pacific, a Canadian mining firm, in Baliguian, Zamboanga del Norte last Thursday.

About 40 suspected MILF guerrillas opened fire on a truck carrying dozens of TVI employees, killing at least 13 and injuring 10 others.

"We have recovered evidence linking the MILF to the ambush and we will file a protest with the government peace panel. We will not tolerate this terrorism," said Lt. Gen. Narciso Abaya, chief of the Armed Forces’ Southern Command.

Abaya said soldiers found identification cards of MILF members in a bag found at the ambush site.

Two suspected MILF commanders were also seen in the area, and authorities have copies of extortion letters demanding money from the mining company, Abaya said.

In a statement last Friday, the Calgary-based firm, however, denied the rebels were extorting money, although it acknowledged the threat of extortion is a risk of doing business in Southeast Asia.

"Companies are exposed to that sort of threat all the time," said Tom Healy, TVI’s vice president for operations. "But our company would never ever resort to succumbing to that."

He said the firm won’t pull out of the Philippines despite the attack. Among the dead were eight women and children, he said.

Abaya did not say when the complaint would be filed. After considering the complaint, the government peace panel can bring it up with a joint MILF-government ceasefire committee.

The military and the rebels have accused each other of violating a shaky 1997 truce. Peace negotiations between the MILF and the government to end the three-decade-old insurgency were suspended in October 2001, but are expected to resume next month in Malaysia.

In a related development, police commandos raided an alleged MILF safehouse where they seized explosives and arrested a guerrilla leader and his wife.

The raid netted three mortar rounds, rifle grenades, M-16 assault rifle ammunition, detonators and electrical wires, regional police chief Jose Dalumpines said.

He said police also found maps of General Santos City, which was hit by a deadly bomb blast earlier this year, and of South Cotabato and Sarangani.— With AP report