Military washes hands off civilian fatalities in air assault

MANILA, Philippines - The military on Tuesday washed its hands on the deaths of six civilians as a result of Monday’s air strike in Datu Piang town in Maguindanao province. Armed Forces vice chief Lt. Gen. Cardozo Luna said instead of the military, the blame should fall on the Moro rebels for mixing in with civilians as they were escaping from an earlier encounter with government forces. “They (rebels) were the ones who provoked this (air strike), us not knowing that they were with civilians,” Luna, who also heads Joint Task Force Mindanao, said. Luna was quoting results of an initial investigation conducted by the military on what they termed as an “unfortunate” event. “We are sorry about it. but it was the MILF who provoked the military to fire back,” he said. Luna said the ongoing investigation will determine how the six civilians got caught in the crossfire. “We ordered an investigation because we do not want civilians to be caught in the crossfire or become collateral damage. The civilians were with the armed group. Whether they are relatives of the MILF or being used as shield, that we have to find out,” Luna said. Brigadier General Jorge Segovia, the military spokesman on the ongoing offensive against the rebels, said the investigation would be parallel to the probe that would be conducted by the International Committee on the Red Cross. Luna said two SF 260 planes, backed up by two helicopter gunships, were dispatched last Monday morning to conduct reconnaissance mission against rogue Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels earlier encountered at Gawang village in Datu Saudi Ampatuan. He said troops from the Division Reconnaissance Company and 64th Infantry Battalion were dispatched to Gawang village two days after receiving information that renegade MILF commander Ameril Umbra Kato and three of his sub-commanders were in the area. After a firefight, Luna said the rebel group withdrew toward Tee village in Datu Piang. From the town, the rebels reportedly boarded 10 boats together with the civilians. Luna said this prompted the ground commanders to request for aerial reconnaissance. The dispatched aircraft, however, were fired upon by the rebels while flying over the bancas at the 200,000-hectare marshland of Tee village. “They (aircraft) turned back at the 10 bancas loaded with armed men presumably trying to escape from Barangay Tee and conducted strafing. How the civilians got into being crossfire victims, that is the subject of the investigation,” he said. Segovia, in a press briefing in Camp Aguinaldo, said the aircraft used machineguns and a coup of rockets against the bancas. He could not say if all the 10 bancas were hit in the assault. Monday’s air strike were the first sorties to be conducted by the military since Ramadan, the holiest month for Muslims, started last Sept. 1. The military leadership has directed field commanders to limit use of artillery assets and air strikes in deference to Ramadan. Such firepower, however, could be used in case of overwhelming enemy force. Segovia said whether or not the pilots committed lapses in the operations is also the subject of the ongoing investigation. “We are not seeing any lapse but I do not want to pre-empt any investigation. We can’t say who is responsible... Before we take action, we have to determine if there was any violation,” he said. - GMANews.TV