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News Release
January 26, 2007
Families of slain civilians and MNLF in Sulu seek justice for massacre of
kin
While the US Ambassador Kristie Kenney, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
and AFP chief of Staff Hermogenes Esperon fawn over the Philippine Marines
based in Sulu for killing Abu Sayyaf leaders, families of the slain
members of the Moro National Liberation Front grieve over the death of
their kin and ask that justice be given to them.
The Philippine Marines in Basilan reported that they had an encounter with
MNLF members on January 18 in Bgy. Timpuuk in Patikul, Sulu whom they
earlier reported as members of the Abu Sayyaf in Patikul.
According to the family not all those who died were members of the MNLF.
One of those was an 11 year old boy, Rodimar Julali who was accompanying
his father Muammil Julali, 35 yrs old, a baranggay councilor when the
marines manning the detachment in Bgy. Bonbon fired at the tamaraw jeep
they were riding.
The other was an 82-yr old man, Sarail Jaynatul, grandfather of some of
some relatives who protest the killing.
The only known MNLF in the group was Kaddan Usman, 50 yrs. Old. The rest
of those slain were either MNLF members or relatives who accompanied Usman
on his way to the office of the MNLF in Sulu to report an incident
concerning the shooting of MNLF members in Timpuuk thirty minutes before
the tamaraw jeep they were riding was fired upon by the marines.
The rest of those slain were Almujir Karain, 21 yrs. old, Ibno Karain, 50
yrs. old, Ablayan Sahida, 37 yrs. old, Jun Simsula, 36 yrs. old, and Taib
Usman, 21 yrs. old.
According to the families and witnesses whom the MNLF monitoring committee
has interviewed, Kaddan Usman was visiting his relatives in the area when
the marines chanced upon them in their houses and began firing.
The relatives said that there were no Abu Sayyaf members in the area and
that it used to be one of the MNLF camps during the peace agreement and
the reign of Prof. Nur Misuari as regional governor of the Autonomous
Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Timpuuk is a neighboring village of Bgy . Bonbon, the headquarters of the
Philippine Marines in Sulu and encircling it are small detachments of the
marines, one of which was the place where the marines hang their cell
phones to get a better cellular signal.
The headquarters in Bonbon is also the home of the US advisers and
soldiers deployed in Sulu who train the Philippine Marines to battle the
Abu Sayyaf and Jemayat Islamiya.
When the families reported to Cocoy Tulawie, a councilor in Jolo, a human
rights activist in Sulu and vice-president of Suara Bangsamoro Partylist,
he immediately corrected the earlier reports of the military and told the
military that they are making the civilians in the area vulnerable to
military reprisals and making Timpuuk as one of the targets for their
anti-Abu Sayyaf campaign.
Despite the death of Abu Sayyaf leaders’ Khadaffy Janjalani and Abu
Solaiman, the AFP declared a much intense campaign to finish off the
remaining leaders and members which means a much intensified military
campaign in the area.
Two days after the death of the MNLF members, six Moro civilians were
arrested by the Philippine Marines on January 20 in Sitio Langpas, Bgy
Saldang in the coastal town of Parang in Sulu.
The six were accused of being Abu Sayyaf members who were in a gunfight
with the military.
The relatives who reported the incident to members of Suara Bangsamoro
said that the six were farmers and that they were unarmed and were
actually part of the residents of neighboring villages who fled the area
because of the fight between the Abu Sayyaf and the military.
The six are Julpi Bastillan, ASli Bahari, Gapur Angkijh, Ben Lipae, Boy
Lipae and a certain Karam. All six are farmers from Bole Bawang village in
Parang.
They were first detained at the military brigade in Jolo and were released
in the custody of the provincial jail where they were detained without
charges.
When Amirah Ali Lidasan, vice-chairperson of Suara Bangsamoro, visited the
provincial jail, the warden told her that the six were released on January
22 from their custody and was released to the town mayor. No charges and
papers were processed pending the arrest and immediate release of the
victims.
Lidasan said that if the military will not be apprehended for the illegal
arrest and detention of the civilians in Sulu and the death of MNLF
members and relatives, the military based in Sulu will repeat these abuses
especially after their considered victory against the Abu Sayyaf and in
the light of their intensified campaign to finish off the Abu Sayyaf in
Sulu.
Lidasan hopes that the killing of MNLF members will be tackled in the
coming tri-partite talks of the Organization of Islamic Conference, the
Philippine government and the MNLF as a complaint against the series of
human rights violations committed by the military against the civilians of
Sulu in light of their military operations.
Lidasan also said that the resumption of Balikatan in Sulu next month is
not a guarantee that there will be a check on the violations on the rights
of the civilians and MNLF forces in the Sulu rather the presence of the US
troops as advisers and trainers would only embolden the military to commit
these violations.
Lidasan said that even the US soldiers were part of the attack against the
MNLF and the civilians in their areas based on the report that reached
them in 2005 and that merited a congressional inquiry in February 2006.
“The presence of the Philippine military and US soldiers in Sulu will
always be a cause of insecurity of the civilians and the MNLF in their
Sulu, for as records show they bore the brunt of military reprisals
against a small group of Abu Sayyaf,” said Lidasan.
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