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ZAMBOANGA CITY—Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom)
investigators have absolved the soldiers accused of
killing eight people in a coastal village of Sulu on
February 4, a military official disclosed.
Absolved
from the accusation of killing seven innocent civilians
and a soldier on leave in a raid in barangay Ipil,
Maimbung, Sulu, are the troops from the Army’s Light
Reaction Company (LRC) and the Navy’s Special Warfare
Group (SWAG).
Maj.
Eugenio Batara Jr., Wesmincon information officer, said
the command’s inspector general absolved all the
soldiers involved in the raid and said the attack in
barangay Ipil was a legitimate military operation.
“It was
a legitimate encounter with the Abu Sayyaf. That is the
findings of the IG,” Batara said.
The
military insisted the raid targeted the Abu Sayyaf group
and that there was a firefight between the bandits and
the soldiers in the village.
The Sulu-based
Joint Task Force Comet earlier reported that the raid
was carried out following reports that the Abu Sayyaf
bandits holding a female Jolo rice trader are in the
area.
The
Wesmincom reported that two soldiers were killed while
five others, including a junior officer, were wounded in
the hourlong firefight that broke out about 2:55 a.m. of
February 4.
The
Wesmincom inspector general, Col. Fred Llosa, led the
investigation into the incident.
Llosa
was sent to Sulu following the allegations that the
troops killed the civilians and the soldier on leave.
The
Wesmincom IG findings contradicted with the
investigation report of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR)
that recommended prosecution against all those involved
directly or indirectly in the attack.
“None of
them was an Abu Sayyaf member. Seven civilians and a
government soldier were killed in that attack,” CHR
Regional Director Jose Manuel Mamauag said.
“From
all indications, the February 4, 2008 barangay Ipil
incident is a clear breach of the human rights of the
victims,” the four-man CHR investigation team said in
its six-page report to Mamauag.
Among
those reported killed in the raid were two children, two
teenagers and a pregnant woman, a seaweed farmer and a
village councilor.
The
killed civilians were identified as Marisa Payian, 4;
Wedme Lahim, 9; Alnalyn Lahim, 15; Sulayman Hakob, 17;
Kirah Lahim, 45; Eldisim Lahim, 43; Narcia Abon, 24.
The
soldier on leave who was killed was identified as Pfc.
Ibnul Wahid of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division based in
Central Mindanao. |
