A reign of terror and savagery continued in the troubled southern island of Basilan yesterday, with unknown gunmen murdering and decapitating another Muslim preacher. The military said the same group that mutilated the corpses 10 Marine soldiers killed in a gunbattle on July 10 could also be behind the death of the imam, whose name was withheld.Marine Col. Ramiro Alivio, the islandÂ’s military chief, said
| The imamÂ’s body was chopped into pieces and stuffed into a sack. |
He claimed that the victim had provided information to the military about the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group and lawless elements in Basilan. “Villagers, including the tabliq, are helping us and providing intelligence about terrorists and lawless groups in Basilan,” he said without further elaborating.
Last week, Abu Sayyaf militants also killed a Muslim preacher in BasilanÂ’s Al-Barka town on suspicion he was passing information to military authorities about kidnapped Italian Catholic priest Giancarlo Bossi. Local officials said the imamÂ’s death in the village of Ginanta in Al-Barka on July 10 happened a few hours before gunmen attacked a convoy of Marines who came to check reports that the priest was being hidden somewhere in the town.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest Muslim group which is seeking an independent Islamic state in the southern Philippines, claimed its fighters were behind the attack but denied beheading the fallen soldiers. MILF leaders also suggested that the soldiers were behind the killing of the Ginanta preacher, an accusation strongly denied by the military. “We are not savages,” said Alivio yesterday.
The beheadings have sparked an outrage and the military yesterday said the search for Bossi was no longer its priority. Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon reiterated the military’s demand on the MILF to surrender those responsible attack, which he said was a violation of a truce between the government and the separatist group. Esperon, who was in this southern city yesterday, said troops will pursue the culprits if the MILF fails to yield those behind the beheading. “This is not a time for revenge, but a time to punish those responsible in the barbaric act,” he said.We have asked them to cooperate and turn over those who were behind the dastardly act of beheading our marines.”
The rebels cautioned the military against taking any sweeping action on Basilan, saying it could jeopardize ongoing efforts to resume peace talks. “We’re reasonable people and we’re easy to deal with,” said Mohaqher Iqbal, the rebel chief peace negotiator, told reporters by telephone from his hideout on Mindanao Island. “Let’s wait for the fact-finding team to finish their jobs. We understand they lost some of their comrades, but the massing of forces on Basilan will not help the peace process.”
Sattar Alih, head of the MILF cease-fire monitoring team in Basilan, said rebel forces withdrew from the battle scene, leaving the bodies of soldiers behind, after military and rebels agreed to a cease-fire. Intelligence sources in Basilan have implicated unnamed politicians who allegedly supplied the Abu Sayyaf with mortar rockets, weapons and munitions during the fighting. Their private armies also reportedly fought side-by-side with the MILF and that two gunmen had died in the skirmishes. The military is now investigating the reports.
A tense cease-fire between the government and the MILF is holding in the south as the two sides allowed a team of Malaysian monitors to investigate the July 10 clash in which at least 18 people, including 14 marines, were killed and 16 wounded. The cease-fire between the military and the MILF, which has been in place since 2003, has been occasionally broken, but last weekÂ’s fighting was one of the most serious violations.