Moro rebs accuse military of strafing Lanao positions

Moro guerrillas accused Army troops of strafing their positions in Lanao del Norte yesterday, further heightening the tension between the two sides following the impasse in the peace talks and the murder complaint against the rebels’ leader.

Mohagher Iqbal, chief peace negotiator of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said military helicopters flew low over the front’s positions in the mountains of Lanao del Norte early yesterday and exchanged fire with the rebels.

No casualties were reported and the military did not comment immediately on the incident.

"It intensified the already-heightened alert, especially with the impasse in the talks and this case against chairman Murad," Igbal said.

In a murder complaint, police said they suspected MILF chairman Al-Haq Murad Ebrahim and several MILF commanders of plotting the Oct. 10 bombing that killed six people and wounded more than 30 others in Makilala, North Cotabato.

The complaint also named three Indonesian militants, including top terror suspects Dulmatin and Omar Patek, both of the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah, and a Pakistani national.

Dulmatin and Patek, believed being coddled by the Abu Sayyaf, have been blamed for some of Southeast Asia’s worst terrorist attacks, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people.

Iqbal said the MILF would file a protest with the joint ceasefire committee that has been observing the three-year truce between MILF and military forces.

Aleem Abdul Aziz Mimbantas, MILF vice chairman, warned in a statement posted on the front’s website that the complaint was "no less than an act of hostile provocation whose dire consequences will widen the existing cleavage between the MILF and the Philippine government."

Unless dropped, the complaint "will definitely and detrimentally affect the peace process," he said.

Although the impasse in the peace talks and the murder complaint against Murad have seriously affected the MILF, Ghadzali Jaafar, MILF vice chairman for political affairs, said the front was still willing to pursue its peace talks with the government.

Despite these developments, Jaafar said the truce "has remained in place."

"Our units in the field and their counterparts in the police and military (have adhered) to the ceasefire. We ought to congratulate the joint ceasefire committee for its efficiency in enforcing the ceasefire," he told reporters in his residence in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao yesterday.

Jaafar said the MILF was touched by the outpouring of support for the peace talks from the business and religious communities and various non-government organizations.

"This is very encouraging. This indicates that no one in Mindanao wants war," he said.

Jaafar, however, asked for vigilance as he warned of a "third party," which he said "does not want the peace process to proceed."

Meanwhile, Jaafar said the MILF was elated by last week’s deployment of a Japanese disaster and rehabilitation expert to the Malaysian-led international monitoring team, which has been helping enforce the ceasefire since 2003.

As a member of the monitoring team, Masafumi Nagaichi, of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), will focus on viable socio-economic interventions for poor Muslim communities in areas covered by the ceasefire.

JICA has been helping implement humanitarian projects in many areas in Mindanao even before the peace talks with the MILF began in 1997.

Japan is the first non-Muslim country to deploy a representative to the monitoring team.

Peace talks between the government and the MILF started on Jan. 7, 1997, but gained momentum only three years ago with the participation of Malaysia as a "third party mediator." — John Unson and AP