| Submit your comments on this article |
| Southeast Asia |
| MNLF begins shooting spree in Maguindanao |
| 2004-02-04 |
| Unidentified armed men, believed to be members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), fired at houses, including one owned by a top Red T’duray and Moro communities in North Upi accused the group of Hajji Usop Amerul, a local MNLF commander, of launching the attack in sitio Krudong, barangay Sedem, North Upi. The attack took place as members of the Army-led anti-crime Task Force Tugis were scouring nearby villages in search of suspected Abu Sayyaf gunmen led by Kumander Khadafy Janjalani, the head of the bandit group which used to operate in Sulu and Basilan. The "heat" caused by the Army operations in Sulu and Basilan reportedly prompted Janjalani’s group to seek refuge in Maguindanao. The pursuit against the Abu Sayyaf was launched last month when the military monitored presence of the armed men in a coastal area of North Upi. From barangay Laguitan, a coastal village in North Upi, the operatives of Task Force Tugis, including the group of Hajji Amerul, proceeded to Sedem and Miti, two upland barangays in North Upi, which the government soldiers suspected as the new "headquarters" of alleged Abu Sayyaf and Abu Sofia groups. The pursuing soldiers had already reached Mt. Fakal, a forested mountain in North Upi, at sitio Krubong in barangay Sedem, also a timber-rich area. The site of the recent fighting was only few meters from a log pond where timbers were kept and protected by Hajji Amerul and his men. Amerul and his men had long been fighting the families of Commander Minalang of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Tabunaway clan of the Tduray Kuyog Sumfat Mamalu (KSM). The armed clans, residents said, were fighting over the right to secure the log pond. Task Force Tugis commander Col. Felipe Tabas denied claims they were running after civilians who are opposed to the cutting of trees in North Upi. "We’re running after a band of terrorists wrecking havoc in the area. I am very sure they are members of the Abu Sayyaf Group," Tabas said. Meantime, Sinsuat said that the evacuees from sitio Krubong have taken refuge in makeshift evacuation sites in the farm of her family in barangay Resa, North Upi. "What we need right now so that we could act on the problem is the official list of the evacuees. It’s a requisite," she said. Sinsuat, who is a Maguindanaon, has appealed for sobriety among the people affected by the military’s operations in Upi. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |