Sulu killings: "massacre, no legitimate encounter" say human rights investigators

By Julie S. Alipala

Ms. Sandrawina Wahid, whose vacationing soldier-husband was among those killed, told reporters in Sulu on Tuesday that she saw four US soldiers among Filipino troopers who stormed Barangay Ipil in Maimbong, Sulu.

Jose Manuel Mamauag, director of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in Western Mindanao, said Wahid was consistent in her account about the participation of US soldiers in the raid on Ipil.

Mamauag said Wahid had already submitted a sworn statement on it. “After her husband was shot before her eyes, she was brought to a Navy boat where she saw the four US soldiers. She also claimed that the raiding soldiers looted their village because she recognized her neighbors’ animals,” he said.

“We are aware it’s Wahid’s words against the interests of the Americans, but it’s executed through an affidavit and we are standing by her statement,” Mamauag added. He said the CHR investigation of the Maimbung massacre also found that the soldiers “used heavy armaments.”

The burning of at least seven houses by the soldiers, as attested to by residents, also bolstered reports of abuses, Mamauag said.