…which apparently indicates that the ceasefire is over — as if that weren’t obvious already. “MILF rebels execute gov”t ceasefire monitor,” from AFP, August 28 (thanks to Mackie):
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas have executed a member of the government’s ceasefire observer after being snatched by the Moro rebels during the recent heavy military-MILF clashes in Maguindanao province, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said.
Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, Army”s 6th Infantry Division spokesman, said reports reaching the AFP point to missing GRP-MILF Joint Monitoring Action Team (JMAT) ceasefire observer, Army Sgt. Roger Emben, of the Army”s 64th Infantry Battalion, as having been summarily executed and buried in a shallow grave at the borders of Datu Piang and Mamasapano towns in Maguindanao.
The guerrillas abducted Emben and another companion last week in Barangay Balanakin, Datu Piang, and nothing has been heard from both since.
“We were informed by local officials and evacuees from Barangay Balanakin that the MILF faction that took Emben and his companion allowed the MILF ceasefire monitors to leave first before taking them captives,” Ando stressed.
Emben and companion were separately shot to death near their ceasefire monitoring post, Ando added.
Meanwhile, Christians in the area have had enough:
In similar fashion, a Christian vigilante group known as the Ilagas, warned yesterday that it will start executing 10 Muslim rebels for every civilian killed as violence in Mindanao intensifies.
The Reform Ilaga Movement, dormant for decades after gaining prominence in the 1970s during the early stages of the rebellion, has again been on the spotlight in the face of a new campaign by Muslim rebels.
Rebels last week killed scores of people in attacks on Christian villages and towns in fighting that has intensified since a breakdown in talks to end the insurgency by creating a semi-autonomous Muslim region.
“If the fighting continues, for every civilian killed, we will execute 10 MILF rebels,” said Mike Santiago, a spokesman for the vigilante movement.
“We are for arming civilians in areas targeted by MILF and for them to defend their families and property,” he told reporters in his hideout camp in the south of the country….