Military links MILF to mortar attacks in Mindanao province; ties NGO to rebel group

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / June 26, 2009) – The Philippine Army on Friday has linked Moro rebels on a mortar attack that killed a civilian in Maguindanao province the troubled Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao.

One woman was also injured in the attack late Wednesday in the village of Binangga, said Colonel Jonathan Ponce, a spokesman for the 6th Infantry Division.

A report by television network ABS-CBN said the mortar shell landed in a house near the town of Guindulungan where security forces are battling Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels.

The victim, Guiarria Enoc, was killed and her sister Vanessa blamed the military for the attack.

Ponce insisted the attack was launched by rebels to discredit the military ahead of a scheduled fact-finding mission by a group of journalists from June 29-July 2. The mission was organized by various nongovernmental and media organizations for journalists to see the situation and plight of war refugees in Mindanao.

“The mortar round came from the rogue MILF (members) as preparation for the upcoming fact-finding mission of the invited Manila-based journalists to put the blame on the military in order to destroy its image and credibility,” Ponce told the Mindanao Examiner.

The victim’s sister said another mortar shell exploded about four meters away from their house. She said civilians were often victims of human rights violations by government soldiers.

ABS-CBN also said troops prevented their news team from going to other villages where military shelling had been reported.

Ponce said the rebels also launched mortar attacks on the headquarters of the 64th Infantry Battalion in the village of Kabingi in Datu Saudi Ampatuan town, also in Maguindanao, but there were no military casualties.

“At the same night, at about 242230, the battalion headquarters of 64 IB …was subjected by enemy mortar fires and 8 rounds coming from 81mm mortar exploded in the camp perimeter with negative casualty and damage of property on the government side,” he said.

Ponce also linked the organizer of the media fact-finding mission to the MILF

“The mortar round that exploded in the village of Binangga was deliberately done by the rogue MILF. An NGO identified with the MILF invited media from Manila paying all expenses and pocket money,” Ponce said.

Ponce did not identify the NGO, but the mission was organized by independent and credible groups - the Mindanao ComStrat and Policy Alternatives, MindaNews, Center for Community Journalism and Development, National Union of Journalists in the Philippines, Peace and Conflict Journalism Network, the Institute of War and Peace Reporting and the Oblate Media’s I –Watch.

The MILF has previously accused the military of shelling civilian targets on suspicion rebels were hiding in the area. It also charged army of widespread human rights violations in the Muslim autonomous region where soldiers looted and torched civilian houses.

Some 31,000 people are in different refugee shelters in Maguindanao’s Datu Piang town alone and that at least 95 civilians, many of them children, had been killed since fighting between military and rebel forces began last year.

“The world's largest new displacement last year happened when 600,000 people fled fighting between the Army and rebel groups in the southern region of Maguindanao,” reported the Oslo-based Norwegian Refugee Council.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines also reported that representatives of nongovernmental and humanitarian organizations were being prohibited by the military from going to evacuation centers in the guise of protecting humanitarian workers from being caught in the crossfire.

Ponce denied all the accusations against the army and branded them as propaganda. (Mindanao Examiner)