Suspect in Maguindanao bombing cries torture

COTABATO CITY — A suspect in the Jan. 4 bombing of a basketball court in Parang, Maguindanao called on President Arroyo yesterday to intervene in his case as he was allegedly tortured by soldiers to implicate two key political leaders in the incident.

Officials of the Maguindanao provincial jail said the suspect, Kusain Taha, earlier identified as Omar Ramalan, was turned over to them already injured and "blindfolded" by members of the military police.

Taha, also known as Commander Bagi-Bagi in the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), said his military interogators forced him to sign an affidavit naming Parang’s vice mayor, Adnan Biruar, and his political ally, Talid Abo, as the real brains in the bombing.

Taha was arrested last week by men of the Army’s 64th Infantry Battalion manning a roadside checkpoint in Matanog, Maguindanao.

Taha’s relatives said that from Matanog, Taha was brought to an Army headquarters in Parang and was subsequently transfered to another military camp near Cotabato City.

"I was blindfolded while I was being beaten. I hear the sound of a chainsaw and the gush of water in a river in the surroundings where I was detained," Taha told reporters in Filipino.

The Cotabato Medical Center here has certified that Taha has indeed sustained injuries in different parts of the body as a result of torture.

An irate Biruar, who is seeking re-election as Parang vice mayor, told Catholic radio station dxMS here yesterday that his rivals have been exhausting all means to pin him down and implicate him in the bombing, which killed 22 people and caused serious injuries to 71 others.

Among those wounded in the bombing was Parang Mayor Vivencio Bataga, a former officer of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division here.

Bataga, who, as a soldier, had fought secessionists for nearly four decades, earlier said he was sure the bombing was aimed at neutralizing him.

Taha claimed he was repeatedly electrocuted by soldiers who forced him to confess to the bombing and name Bataga’s known political adversaries as responsible for the bombing.

"I told them I could not do what they wanted because I didn’t have any involvement in the bombing and that I don’t know either who could be responsible for the incident," he said.

The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) police had earlier charged Abdul Katab, a councilor in Parang, and a civilian named Suharto Ahmad, in connection with the bombing. The two are both at large.