Four identified Abu Sayyaf members tagged as beheaders of Marines

By Ronron
August 2, 2007

Four members of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) were identified as among those who beheaded four of the 14 slain Marine soldiers during the July 10 incident in Basilan.

This was one of the findings of the investigation of the joint Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on the July 10 incident, government officials said Thursday.

National Security Adviser and acting Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales identified the four ASG suspects in a news conference yesterday afternoon at Camp Aguinaldo as Suwaid Kalibon, Nurhassan Jamiri, Omar Indanga, and Puhari Jamiri.

“Actually, one of the witnesses, Nassar Tao, is a member of the 3rd Brigade of the MILF and he was one of those who joined the encounter. He said in his testimony that between 5:30 and 6 pm (of July 10), when they were starting to muster their group, they found some of their members lacking, those among the casualties. And they were advised to look for these (lacking members). In that incident, when they returned, they saw the four starting the beheading (of the soldiers),” Brig. Gen. Edgardo Gurrea, the chairman of the government CCCH, said in the news briefing.

Gonzales said 10 other ASG members who are not identified were mentioned in the report as “probably standing on the sideline and watching the atrocities,” which took place just at the encounter site in Barangay Guinanta in Al-Barka town.

“So, all in all, in the report, we can say that about 14 ASG members are involved. But since we do not have witnesses yet on what happened on the six Marines, so we don’t know whether some MILF may be involved or some other forces. We don’t know that yet,” Gonzales said.

Of the four ASG rebels identified, only Jamiri is included in the current list of the arrest warrant issued by the Basilan court and now being hunted by policemen and government soldiers.

“What will happen is we will apply for arrest warrants against the three,” Gonzales said.

Gurrea said Tao claimed knowing the four by their names.

He said they are still checking if the four ASG rebels have committed previous violations of the law.

Gurrea said they have no information though about the ASG’s participation in the actual encounter that began at 10am that day.

He said that when Tao testified, he claimed the MILF forces were on their own during the firefight and had no ASG members among them.

“The MILF has denied that (alleged collusion with the ASG) but we still ask them why there were Abu Sayyaf members there during the encounter,” Gonzales said.

Quoting Tao, he said the presence of the ASG at the firefight is only because “there is a certain barangay” near Guinanta, or some seven kilometers away from the encounter site, “where the ASG normally moves around.” Gurrea said this claim of Tao though needs to be verified.

Asked if MILF members were found to have participated in the beheading, Gurrea said: “We have no proof on that. That needs further investigation.”

While there was no mention about who could have beheaded the six other soldiers, Gonzales said he is disturbed about indications that at least two of them may still be alive before their bodies were mutilated.

Another point not cleared by the investigation is whether or not it was an ambush or a legitimate encounter.

“The investigation just focused on the perpetrators of the beheading. There are other side questions that need to be discussed further. It is still being debated upon if it was an encounter or an ambush,” Gonzales said.

“But the report submitted is very good. It has lots of details. But it doesn’t mean that the investigation is complete. The report itself say so,” he added.

Gonzales said that now that the CCCH has already completed the fact-finding mission, then nothing should stop the punitive actions in Basilan.

He said the police, supported by soldiers, can proceed with the service of the arrest warrant issued by a Basilan court against the identified 127 suspects.

Gurrea clarified that their 22 witnesses are not the same witnesses that were the basis for the existing arrest warrant.

He said they also did not come up with a list of other suspects, other than the four identified ASG members.

Defense Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor said in the same briefing that should the rest of the 127 identified suspects with arrest warrants complain and ask for a motion for reinvestigation based on the findings of the joint CCCH investigation, the government will not object to it.

“A motion for reinvestigation is a right that is given to all respondents,” he said.

Gonzales disclosed that the six recommendations of the fact-finding report are the following: 1) ASG members responsible for beheadings/mutilation should be interdicted (by the MILF), pursuant to established ceasefire mechanisms; 2) Revisit/strengthen the Ceasefire Agreement to responsive to similar situations; 3) the Adhoc Joint Action Group coordinating mechanism of the government and the MILF must be reactivated immediately; 4) Advocacy of the peace process to all sectors to ensure strict adherence to the Ceasefire Agreement; 5) Firearms and equipment taken from Marines must be returned; and, 6) Review of criminal information against (127) MILF, local politicians, and law enforcement personnel in view of the recent findings.

Gonzales said that since the operations in Basilan will go full swing already, the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) will go there on Monday to make sure that civilians are not caught in possible armed confrontations if the situation escalates./DMS