MILF begins own probe into deadly bombing in Mindanao

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / July 6, 2009) – Philippine Moro rebels have began a parallel probe into a deadly bomb attack outside a Catholic church that killed 5 people and wounded over 50 others in the troubled South.

Military authorities blamed the Moro Islamic Liberation Front for the weekend bombing in Cotabato City. But the MILF denied the accusation and has started its own investigation into the attack.

“We have began our own investigation and we also wanted to know who was behind the bombing or whether the military or other group opposed to the peace process was involved in the attack,” Eid Kabalu, a senior MILF leader, told the Mindanao Examiner.

Kabalu said they suspected that government soldiers were behind the spate of bombings in the restive Muslim autonomous region where security and rebel forces are fighting.

“There were persistent reports from Muslim villagers that soldiers were behind the bombings to discredit the MILF,” he said.

He said civilians reported on Saturday that they saw a man clad in MILF uniform planted a bomb in Maguindanao’s Datu Piang town and then retreated at an army detachment in Buayan village. The bomb exploded minutes later and injured three people.

Colonel Jonathan Ponce, a spokesman for the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the spate of bombings in Mindanao were the handiwork of the MILF.

“The MILF was behind all these attacks. This is terrorism and the MILF is targeting innocent civilians because of our campaign against rogue rebels, against terrorism,” he said, adding the Indonesian terror group Jemaah Islamiya provided bomb-making training to MILF rebels.

President Gloria Arroyo opened peace talks in 2001 with the MILF, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group fighting for independence, but negotiations collapsed in August last year after both sides failed to sign a Muslim homeland deal.

The rebels accused Arroyo of reneging on the deal that peace negotiators initially signed in Malaysia in July 2008 in Malaysia, which brokered the talks. The Philippine Supreme Court said the agreement was unconstitutional.Since then fighting broke out in many areas in Mindanao.

MILF chieftain Murad Ebrahim called on rebels to be steadfast and patient in the face of the “brutalities” of the military. He also accused government troops of burning some 3,000 houses owned by Muslims and indiscriminate bombing, shelling, and arrests of civilians in Mindanao.

Murad said the military also imposed a food blockade from reaching tens of thousands of hungry refugees and prevented humanitarian groups and journalists from inspecting refugee shelters in Maguindanao.

Murad assailed the military for saying that the MILF infiltrated refugee shelters and rebels were using evacuation centers as base for reserved forces.

The military claimed more than a thousand rebels were killed in the fighting since last year. But Murad denied the report and said MILF forces killed about 500 soldiers and captured their weapons, including two unmanned aerial vehicles shot down in Maguindanao. One of them was a US military spy plane and the other was believed to be owned by the Philippine Army. US troops are deployed in Maguindanao and helping the local military fight terrorism. (Mindanao Examiner)