IMT starts probe on deaths of 9 guerillas in police raid

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The International Monitoring Team has urged stakeholders not to let the death of nine Moro guerillas in a police operation in North Cotabato on May 26 affect the southern peace process.

The IMT, comprised of military and police officers from Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and civilian uniformed conflict resolution experts from Japan, Norway and the European Union, is now investigating on the incident.

The transnational peacekeeping contingent has been observing since 2004 the enforcement of an interim ceasefire pact forged by the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front two decades ago.

The Malaysian-led IMT started its inquiry on the incident on Friday based on a complaint from the MILF.

Malaysian Army Major Gen. Dato Haji Mohd Nazir Bin Haji Mami, IMT mission head, on Saturday appealed for sobriety on the MILF and the government to avoid the incident from turning into an irritant that could derail the current common peace initiatives by both sides.

Mami said the IMT will see to it that its probe on the alleged shootout between the nine MILF members and the police shall be comprehensive.

The MILF had said its slain guerillas were not drug traffickers, contrary to claims by the police.

The chairman of the MILF’s ceasefire committee, Butch Malang, said they also found out that there was no truth to assertions that the victims provoked the gunfight with law enforcement agents who raided their lair in Barangay Kilada in Matalam, North Cotabato to search for drugs.

The government and the MILF are bound by an interim accord — the July 1997 Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities — to resolve together security issues besetting conflict flashpoint areas.

Officials of IMT and representatives from the joint Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities were together in Friday’s initial on-site verification of the alleged encounter in Barangay Kilada.

The joint ceasefire committee, a bloc of senior officers from the Philippine National Police, the Armed Forces of the Philippines and MILF representatives, enforces bilateral security protocols meant to prevent hostilities between state and guerilla forces in far-flung areas.

The investigation that the IMT launched Friday is being supported by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process and the newly-installed commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, Brig. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana.

Sobejana has earlier directed the 602nd Brigade, which covers North Cotabato, to help local officials restore normalcy in Barangay Kilada through multi-sectoral interventions meant to ease the tension caused by the bloodshed in Barangay Kilada.

Sobejana had told reporters during his assumption as 6th ID commander on May 26 that he will support extensively the diplomatic overtures of President Rodrigo Duterte with Moro sectors in central Mindanao.

Besides North Cotabato, the 6th ID also secures the provinces of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat and several towns in Lanao del Sur, where there are guerilla enclaves covered by the government-MILF ceasefire deal.