MILF urges censure of ‘impolite’ Army officer

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao — The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has asked the government peace panel to censure a senior Army officer for allegedly bullying a Malaysian general serving in the international monitoring team.

Members of the monitoring team, composed of military and police officers from Malaysia, Libya and Brunei, and a rehabilitation expert from Japan, are covered by diplomatic protocols.

According to the MILF news website (www. luwaran.com), the incident happened last week when representatives of the government-MILF ceasefire committee and the monitoring team met with the Army officer, a battalion commander in the second district of Maguindanao, to discuss with him the nagging security problems in towns under his jurisdiction.

The officer, whose men figured in recent encounters with MILF forces in the Maguindanao town of Shariff Aguak, allegedly showed disrespect to Gen. Ismail Mohammad Khan, a two-star general in the Malaysian Army, by being discourteous in the supposed peace dialogue.

According to luwaran.com, the officer, instead of briefing Khan politely on the security situation in Shariff Aguak, even "ordered" the Malaysian general to work out the immediate pullout of MILF forces in one of the hostile barangays there to forestall hostilities.

The MILF peace panel is poised to submit a report on the incident to the Malaysian government.

Peace talks between the government and the MILF began on Jan. 7, 1997, but gained headway only about three years ago with the participation of Malaysia as a "third party mediator."

Col. Julieto Ando, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said they would investigate the alleged misbehavior of one of their battalion commanders.