Truce monitoring team begins probe of Basilan encounter

COTABATO CITY, Philippines  – An international team monitoring the ceasefire in Mindanao yesterday began its “third-party” validation of the events that led to the bloody encounter between soldiers and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas in Al-Barka, Basilan last Oct. 19.

The international monitoring team (IMT) has been helping oversee the government-MILF ceasefire since late 2003. It is composed of police and military officers from Malaysia, Brunei and Libya, and non-uniformed representatives from Japan, Norway and the European Union.

The IMT members started their fact-finding mission in Barangay Kambug, Al-Barka town by interviewing MILF members, including Commander Dan Laksaw Asnawi.

According to earlier reports, Asnawi was the target of the military operations in Al-Barka that led to an eight-hour firefight between the Army’s elite Special Forces and the Asnawi-led MILF unit.

The hostilities left 19 soldiers, five MILF guerrillas and a civilian dead and dislocated more than 10,000 villagers.

More than a dozen others, including 14 soldiers, were wounded in the ensuing encounters.

Maj. Gen. Ariel Bernardo, chairman of the government peace panel, said the IMT’s head of mission, Maj. Gen. Dato Mahdi bin Yusop, is closely supervising the fact-finding mission.

Bernardo said the government-MILF joint ceasefire committee supports the third-party investigation into the incident.

In a statement, Yusop said they are conducting the investigation to verify the claims and counter-claims of the military and MILF on the Al-Barka incident.

The probe was also meant “to assess the humanitarian situation… and the socio-economic and rehabilitation needs consequent thereto,” Yusop added.

The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group has filed criminal charges against Asnawi and about 300 others in Al-Barka town for the deaths of the 19 soldiers.

The MILF has insisted that under agreed protocols, it is the joint ceasefire committee, along with the IMT, that has to initiate action against the group that started the hostilities in Al-Barka.

Bernardo said the government and the MILF filed their respective protests days after the incident.