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| Southeast Asia |
| Kabalu seethes over Filippino airstrike |
| 2004-11-22 |
| The Moro Islamic liberation Front (MILF) filed a protest over the weekend with Malaysian peace monitors over military's alleged violation of cease-fire agreement when it launched an aerial assault on suspected members of Abu Sayyaf and Jema'ah Islamiyah in Maguindanao. MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said in a telephone interview on Sunday that they filed the protest as members of Malaysian-led international monitoring team who were in Mindanao to oversee the government-MILF July 19, 2003 bilateral truce visited the site of bombardment in Sitio Panan, barangay Nimao in Datu Piang town. Kabalu said there was no Abu Sayyaf or Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militants in the area, but admitted an MILF rebel was wounded in the attack. "We are not harboring terrorists. The area where military bombs landed is an MILF area," Kabalu explained. "We have no exact figure but hundreds of families have been forced to evacuate because they were afraid of the bombings," he added. In a statement, MILF-CCCH (Coordinating Committee for the Cessation of Hostilities) chairman Benjie Midtimbang described the assault as the "usual pretext whenever the military wants to violate the cease-fire." Midtimbang recalled that a similar incident occurred when the lair of Tahir Alonto of the Pentagon Gang was attacked on August 13, this year. Military officials said they have notified the MILF about of the aerial assault, but Midtimbang denied it. However, Kabalu said there was a notice from the military but it reached them an hour after the military started bombing the area. "We don't want the incident to escalate that's why we filed a complaint. It's now in the CCCH. They will investigate the matter," Kabalu said. The assault left at least ten suspected members of JI and Abu Sayyaf dead. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |