MILF to prosecute members tagged in Mamasapano clash

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will prosecute through its Sharia court its members found to have violated the group’s policies when they engaged police commandos in a bloody clash in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on January 25.

The MILF’s figurehead, Murad Ebrahim, announced on Friday that they will not surrender any of their men involved in the encounter even if found to have transgressed the group’s ceasefire accord with government.

There are provisions in the July 1997 government-MILF ceasefire accord which enjoins both sides to censure and discipline each other’s forces for any infraction of the agreement.

Murad and  Von Al-Haq, the spokesman of the MILF’s military wing, the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, announced separately on Thursday that  their Special Investigative Commission had completed its probe on what is now known as the “Mamasapano incident,” which virtually shook the nation to its core.

At least 44 operatives of the police’s elite Special Action Force, 17 MILF members and four innocent civilians were killed in the hostilities, which challenged the rebel group’s now 18-year peace overture with government.

Murad was quoted in reports on Friday by radio stations in Central Mindanao as having admitted that some MILF members that figured in the firefights with SAF commandos violated the security protocols their peace panel had crafted along with its government counterpart. Murad did not elaborate, however.

“They will be dealt with by the MILF leadership based on security protocols and agreements with Philippine government,” Murad said.

The MILF’s chief negotiator, Muhaquer Iqbal, earlier said their findings on the Mamasapano incident will be channeled through Malaysia, the facilitator of their peace talks with government.

He said it is Malaysia that will release the report to the government’s peace panel, a procedure the GPH and MILF had bilaterally agreed on more than a decade ago.

Iqbal said their initial findings showed that only 17 and not 18 MILF rebels were killed in the Mamasapano incident.

Al-Haq said their findings also indicated that the cadavers of some of the slain SAF men were used as “shields” by their companions as they engaged MILF forces in combat on January 25.

“That explains why some of them had bullet wounds as if they were shot at close range,” Al-Haq told reporters.