Philippine rebels urged to return guns of slain police commandos

A senior official on Wednesday urged the Moro Islamic Liberation Front leader Ibrahim Murad to return the weapons, mobile phones and other belongings of slain police commandos which the rebels took away following an intense fighting in southern Philippines.

Mujiv Hataman, governor of Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said the gesture will help them regain public trust amid calls to suspend and scrap the Bangsamoro Basic Law which will give them expanded autonomy once approved and signed by lawmakers.

"I challenge the MILF to hand the properties of slain policemen to improve confidence in the peace process," said Hataman. "If I had my way, the firearms and other things taken from the SAF should be turned over to the government."

The governor said other weapons in the hands of the MILF's breakaway group, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, are out of the question.

"The government and MILF are now partners because of the peace negotiation so there should be some confidence rebuilding that was destroyed by the bloody incident," he said.

Earlier, Ghadzali Jaafar, MILF vice chair for political affairs, said they were still investigating the incident.

On Jan. 25, 44 elite members of Philippine National Police Special Action Force were killed while 14 others wounded when they came to Mamasapano town in Maguindanao for a "law enforcement operation" against Zulkifli and Usman.

Zulkifli, who has a 5-million-dollar bounty by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation for his arrest over his involvement in the 2002 Bali bombing In Indonesia that left 110 foreign nationals dead, was reportedly killed while Usman, a bomb expert, managed to escape. Endi