ZAMBOANGA CITY, 29 February 2008 — A Muslim human rights group has accused the Philippine military of covering up soldiers involved in what has been dubbed the “Maimbung Massacre” in the southern province of Sulu earlier this month.
A military panel of investigators absolved dozens of members of the army’s Light Reaction Company and the navy’s Special Warfare Group in the killing of seven civilians and an off-duty soldier during a raid on the village of Ipil in Maimbung town on Feb. 4.
In its report, the investigators of the military’s Judge Advocate General’s Office said the raid was a legitimate operation and that there was an encounter with Abu Sayyaf militants.
Amirah Ali Lidasan, national president of Suara Bangsamoro, said her group has long expected that the military will absolve the soldiers. The Suara Bangsamoro is an umbrella organization of Muslim human rights groups.
In view of the alleged “white-washing” by the military, Lidasan surged the Philippines Congress to conduct its own investigation to give justice to the victims.
Lidasan usged Congress to take into consideration the findings of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), which said the soldiers killed unarmed civilians.
“We believe the CHR’s findings because they were based on testimonies of survivors and the whole seaweeds-farming community of Ipil. We have long feared that the Western Mindanao Command investigation will want to whitewash the investigation and absolve their soldiers for the crimes,” Lidasan said in a statement.
Lidasan said the Philippine government should be concerned in giving the Moro people the long-awaited justice that the military deployed in our communities have time and again have been absolved.
She also urged Congress to look into reports that four US soldiers were spotted on a navy boat just off the village of Ipil as local troops were firing on civilians they mistook as Abu Sayyaf militants.
Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan said among those killed in the raid were two children, two teenagers and a pregnant woman, including a seaweed farmer and a village councilor.
He also accused soldiers or murdering innocent villagers.
He said a fact-finding board was created on Wednesday to study and file appropriate criminal charges against the soldiers and their commanders implicated in the killings.
“There should be no cover-up in the killings. We want justice and justice we will get. We will file criminal charges against those involved in the killing of innocent people,” he told Arab News.
