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| Southeast Asia |
| MILF not acting against "renegade" commanders |
| 2005-02-10 |
| It has been a month since the Feb. 10 bloody attack by renegade Moro guerrillas on a roadside Army detachment here and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front's ceasefire committee still has not provided the police and the military with any word on the whereabouts of the perpetrators. Seven soldiers were killed and two others where wounded in the attack by some 200 guerrillas led by Ustadz Wahid, now the subject of an extensive police and military hunt. Maj. Gen. Raul Relano, commander of the Army's 6th Infantry Division, said the military will continue to go after Tundok and at least three other commanders who plotted the attack. Relano said Wahid and his men have lately been seen mingling with Abu Sayyaf and suspected Jemaah Islamiyah elements in secluded spots at the Liguasan Marsh, a 220,000 hectare delta at the boundary of Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat and North Cotabato. "Our informants, some of them Maguindanaon religious leaders, have also informed us that Wahid was also seen in the Butilen area (in Datu Piang, Maguindanao) which we bombarded last month due to the convergence there of Abu Sayyaf and suspected JI operatives," he said. Relano said he is convinced that renegade MILF commanders known for their hardline position on the ongoing government-MILF peace talks, have "personal" links with foreign terrorists. "The MILF leadership has stated repeatedly that it did not order Wahid and his men to attack the detachment in Mamasapano and even emphasized that Wahid did it on his own. We in the military are quite apprehensive that, without the knowledge of the MILF, radical commanders like Wahid may have long been liaising with foreign terrorist organizations," he said. Relano said the 6th ID's main concern now is to prevent renegade commanders like Wahid and an equally radical preacher, Amiril Kato Ombra, from embarking on attacks to derail the ongoing peace talks and to embarrass the leadership of their moderate chieftain, Al-Haj Murad. Maguindanao Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan said President Arroyo and the Department of National Defense should look seriously into reports that renegade rebel groups have been coddling key leaders of the Abu Sofia, a local kidnap-for-ransom gang, and the equally notorious Abu Sayyaf. "This is a very serious concern. We need to pool our efforts in addressing this security problem," Ampatuan told The STAR in the Maguindanao dialect. Relano said they remain optimistic that they can neutralize Wahid and other renegade commanders whom the MILF has disowned due to their activities that have unduly affected the supposedly stable implementation of the ceasefire. "What gives us hope now that we will succeed is the outpouring of support for our efforts from Muslim political and religious leaders in a manner never before recorded in the history of Central Mindanao," he said. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |