JOLO, Philippines, 27 March 2008 — A team of state prosecutors has opened an investigation into the killing of seven civilians and an off-duty soldier during a military operation in the southern province of Sulu.

Headed by Jaime Umpa, regional state prosecutor for the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), the seven-member team’s first act was to meet with Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan and briefed him about their assignment.

Tan has been vocal about the killings, which the military has insisted to a legitimate operation against Abu Sayyaf militants by a combined team of the highly trained Light Reaction Company of the Philippine Army and Special Warfare Group of the Philippine Navy.

Rights advocates, however, described it as a massacre and even the government’s Commission on Human Rights concluded that there were no militants involved.

“There will be a thorough investigation and we will file criminal charges against those who will be found guilty,” Umpa told Arab News.

He said their marching orders from Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales is for the panel “to conduct an impartial investigation and to identify the perpetrators (of the killings)” and to reject any attempt to whitewash the probe.

Gov. Tan and Sulu lawmakers have called for a wider investigation after military probers upheld the version of the troops involved in the incident, in contrast to the findings of the CHR and police.

CHR Regional Director Jose Manuel Mamauag said there were no Abu Sayyaf militants in the village of Ipil in Maimbung town where soldiers conducted a raid on Feb. 4. Mamauag’s reports detailed how troops attacked and plundered the houses of villagers. He recommended the filing of criminal charges against the soldiers involved.

Amid an outcry, the military placed more than 50 soldiers who took part in the operation under camp confinement.

Survivors of the carnage testified in investigations that soldiers opened fire on villagers even as they pleaded for their lives. Four of those killed were shot at sea as they fled for safety on boat.

One of the survivors was Rawina Wahid, wife of the slain soldier, Pfc. Ibnul Wahid, who was who was assigned with the army’s 6th Division and was on furlough. Rawina told probers that her husband was hogtied and tortured by soldiers and was later shot at the back of his head.

“My husband told the soldiers that he is a member of the Philippine Army, but they never listened. They dragged him out of the house, bound his hands behind his back and then shot him,” she said.

Rawina said she saw four US soldiers on a navy boat where the body of her husband was loaded into.

One of the victims had been shot at close range in the forehead, his right eye was gorged out and right ear missing, investigators have said. One had a missing finger while another had burns on his body and legs.

Reps. Yusop Jikiri of Sulu province and Mujiv Hataman of Basilan have separately called for a congressional investigation into the killings.

“There is no valid reason, especially for the soldiers who are supposed to be the protector of the people, to kill innocent civilians, particularly children,” said Hataman.