Author: Froilan Gallardo
Publication: Associated Press
Date: February 16, 2003
Government troops seized boxes of
documents Sunday in the house of a Muslim separatist leader in the southern
Philippines, including manuals on assassination, ambush and bombing techniques,
military officials said.
Pictures of rifle-clad children
being trained as Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas also were found
in the house, which allegedly was the command post of MILF chairman Hashim
Salamat. The sprawling rebel lair was captured after a weeklong military
offensive, the officials said.
"It means they're training terrorists,"
army Maj. Gen. Generoso Senga told reporters. "They're training even child
combatants."
With past police and military intelligence
reports linking the MILF to the al-Qaida terrorist network, the military
will examine the seized documents for a connection, army spokesman Maj.
Julieto Ando said.
The abandoned building and three
nearby huts apparently used as Muslim prayer areas were in a heavily fortified
compound. It was ringed by deep trenches and concrete fence with barbed
wire.
The area is in the so-called Buliok
complex that straddles the southern provinces of North Cotabato and Maguindanao,
which the military said it captured late last week in a major offensive
involving thousands of soldiers.
Armed forces spokesman Col. Essel
Soriano said 157 rebels, five soldiers and one government militiaman were
killed in the fighting. Rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu claimed only 40 guerrillas
were killed, including 35 in a clash Thursday in Sultan Kudarat province,
the worst guerrilla loss in recent memory. Military deaths and injuries
are now in "the hundreds," Kabalu claimed.
Neither count could be independently
confirmed.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo,
whose administration is working to resume peace talks with the rebels,
last week ordered the offensive on Buliok, stressing it was not directed
against the MILF but against criminals and outlaws who have allegedly taken
refuge in MILF areas - including those from the Pentagon, a notorious kidnap
gang on U.S. terrorist lists.
The rebels, who have been waging
a bloody separatist war in the country's poor south, deny the claims, saying
the offensive is aimed at pressuring them into accepting a peace deal.
Kabalu denied that Salamat maintained
a house or command post in Buliok and said the military may have found
a Muslim prayer center. The rebel documents were planted by military officials
to justify the military assaults, which were actually a violation of a
cease-fire agreement, he said.
"This is a psychological, propaganda
operation by the military," Kabalu told The Associated Press by telephone.
"If we abandon an area, do you think we would leave any delicate documents
there?"
He acknowledged many MILF guerrillas
abandoned their strongholds in Buliok because of the overwhelming military
combat forces.
"We're natives there and we have
a mastery of the terrain," he said. "We've just maneuvered out to avoid
the tanks and planes, but we're just around running and watching."
Pockets of rebel attacks continued
over the weekend near Buliok. Suspected guerrillas attacked a marine outpost
with rocket-propelled grenades and mortar shells late Saturday, injuring
four soldiers, the military said.
The fighting began Tuesday with
a government assault on the Pikit area in North Cotabato province, about
575 miles southeast of Manila. About 51,000 people have fled their homes.