Mamasapano probe to start Feb. 7

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - The government’s Board of Inquiry is to start on February 7 its probe on the January 25 encounter between members of the police’s Special Action Force (SAF) and Moro rebels in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, the International Monitoring Team (IMT) said on Friday.

At least 44 SAF members and 14 guerillas of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front perished in the firefight, which lasted for 10 hours and waned only after local officials and the IMT intervened.

Malaysian Gen. Yaakub Samad, head of the IMT, said they will also initiate their own investigation on the incident to determine the real circumstances that led to the SAF-MILF encounter.

The IMT, comprised of soldiers from Malaysia, Brunei, Libya, Indonesia, and conflict resolution experts from Japan, Norway and the European Union, has been helping enforce the ceasefire between the government and the MILF since late 2003.

Samad said coordination has be facilitated first with witnesses, among them senior officials of the MILF and barangay folks, to ensure a good outcome of the board and the IMT’s investigation on the incident.

“The investigation of the Board of Inquiry will start on February 7,” Samad said.

Samad said the IMT’s own inquiry on the incident will be initiated in coordination with the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities of the government and the MILF.

He said the MILF will also initiate its own probe on the Mamasapano SAF-MILF encounter through its newly formed Special Investigative Commission.

Samad said the IMT, whose role is to monitor the compliance by the MILF and the government with the July 1997 Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities, had dispatched a team to Mamasapano after learning there was a firefight to help reposition the two groups away from each other.

The team was led by a Norwegian IMT member, William Hovland.

Hovland said it was difficult linking up with the MILF and the SAF due to the absence of telecommunications signal in the area.

Brig. Gen. Carlito Galvez, Jr., chairman of the government’s ceasefire committee, said the presence of IMT representatives in Barangay Tukanalipao in Mamasapano during the running firefights helped deescalate the situation, enabling responding policemen and local officials to extricate the dead and wounded SAF members away from the scene.

“Officials of the government and MILF’s ceasefire committees were there at the height of the encounter to help pacify and disengage the two groups,” Galvez said.

Galvez and his MILF counterpart, Rashid Ladiasan, both said the incident will not stifle the peace process.

Ladiasan said 14 MILF members were killed while ten others were wounded in the ensuing shootout.

Ladiasan said the MILF is doing everything to prevent a repeat of such encounter.

He said the MILF will censure its commanders in Mamasapano if found to have violated any provision of their now 18-year ceasefire accord with government.