ZAMBOANGA CITY, 7 July 2006 — A woman was shot dead in a suspected reprisal over a bomb attack on a powerful Muslim governor in the troubled southern Philippines, military and rebel officials said yesterday.
Nora Pakiladatu was gunned down shortly before noon Wednesday in Cotabato City by a lone gunman, field reports reaching the military’s Southern Command here in Zamboanga City said.
Witnesses told investigators that the attacker walked right to the side of a van carrying the victim and shot her several times at close range with a .45-caliber pistol.
Eid Kabalu, spokesman of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said the victim was the wife of Zaid Pakiladatu, one of two senior commanders of the rebel group who have been linked to the June 23 murder attempt on Maguindanao provincial Gov. Andal Ampatuan.
Ampatuan survived the bomb attack in downtown in Shariff Aguak but six others, including one of his nephews, were killed.
Fourteen others, mostly bystanders, were injured in the blast blamed by the military and police on Zaid Pakiladatu and Jamil Ombra, commander of the MILF’s 105th Base Command. Pakiladatu is Ombra’s deputy.
Kabalu said Pakiladatu’s wife was on her way to a mosque when she was shot inside her van in the busy business district of Cotabato. The attack came just hours after Zaid, in a radio interview in Cotabato, denied any involvement in the June 23 bombing.
Kabalu said the woman’s family blamed the killing on the clashes in Shariff Aguak, which stopped only yesterday as presidential peace adviser Jesus Dureza began mediating between the Ampatuan camp and the MILF.
Paramilitary forces controlled by Ampatuan and MILF forces were engaged in sporadic fighting in Shariff Aguak and adjacent towns since last week as an offshoot of the bomb attack.
To make matters worse, he said, women were being targeted in reprisal attacks.
“This is very sad. You don’t kill Muslim women. We condemn the killing,” Kabalu told Arab News.
Prior to the killing of Pakiladato’s wife, gunmen also shot a woman named Kaushar Daud near the area. It was unknown if the twin killings were connected.
The latest killing had worsened the already tense situation in Maguindanao where pro-government militias allegedly executed at least three captured MILF rebels.
There was no word from the camp of Ampatuan over the alleged execution.
Dureza and other peace officials yesterday toured temporary shelters in Shariff Aguak for some 2,000 villagers who fled their homes as fighting raged over the past days.
“We have an initial arrangement. We hope it could stop the physical fighting on the ground,” said Ramon Santos, a retired general and head of the government’s truce panel.
Santos told Reuters the arrangement included the setting up of a buffer zone where soldiers, members of paramilitary forces and Muslim rebels would be prohibited from carrying guns.
“We can’t technically call it a cease-fire because there’s already one in place since 2003 between the government and the MILF,” Santos said.
“There will be no movement of forces, no provocative actions and an effort to end hostilities.”
There were no reported skirmishes yesterday, a day after fierce battles erupted in Datu Unsay town as MILF fighters reclaimed areas taken by paramilitary forces early this week.
Mohaqher Iqbal, the MILF chief peace negotiator, said his group had been in contact with Ampatuan’s camp to find ways to end the clashes that displaced nearly 20,000 people.
“We have no quarrel with the governor and we’re willing to help in the investigation of the bomb attack,” Iqbal told Reuters by phone.
Residents complained dozens of houses were burned down and that crops and farm animals were destroyed by howitzer and mortar shelling by paramilitary forces since last week.
Santos said members of the government and rebel truce panels, accompanied by Red Cross officials, will tour the conflict areas to assess the damage and distribute humanitarian assistance.
The MILF has been negotiating with the government since 1997 to halt a conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people and hampered development of the south, which is rich in oil, minerals and agricultural goods. (With a report by Reuters)
