Military’s Tagging of MNLF Fatalities as Abu Sayyaf Worsens Tension in Sulu
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A government peace negotiator, a Marine general and 11 other people have been held since Friday by a faction of the Moro National Liberation Front. Undersecretary Ramon G. Santos of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), Marine Major General Benjamin Dolorfino, of the military’s National Capital Region Command and the others were prevented from leaving an MNLF camp on Friday afternoon. The MNLF said they did not take Santos and company as hostages and that they were merely asked to remain in the MNLF camp in Panamao, Sulu, “for more inquiries” by the rebel group.
But sources from Sulu have told davaotoday.com that, apart from the MNLF’s demand that its founding chairman, Nur Misuari, be released from house arrest, one of the issues that cropped up was the incident on Jan. 18 in which the Marines killed 10 Moros, five of them said to be members of the MNLF. (One victim was a 12-year-old boy and another was a 90-year-old man.) The military has been insisting that the fatalities were members of the Abu Sayyaf. Read davaotoday.com’s story on the incident.
[tags]davao today, mindanao, sulu, MNLF, abu sayyaf, terrorism[/tags]
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