ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines, May 22 -- Relatives of 10 students and their teacher allegedly killed in the Philippine army's shelling of an Islamic school are demanding 'blood money' as compensation for their loss. Ghadzali Jaafar, chief negotiator for the country's largest rebel force, said Thursday the government 'has not given any assistance to the families of the victims' of the March 16 rocket blitz.
The military has steadfastly denied responsibility for the deaths of the teenage girls and their male instructor in the embattled town of Buldon, headquarters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The government's Commission on Human Rights initiially placed the blame on the armed forces after finding the MILF did not possess 81-mm mortars. An additional probe by the Interim Ceasefire Monitoring Committee released Tuesday showed the mortars were fired from the direction of an army camp in a Buldon logging area. In disclosing the demand for 'blood money,' Jaafar, also the MILF's vice president for political affairs, did not reveal the amount of compensation sought. He said the committee's conclusion 'constitutes the truth' for all residents of Mindanao, the main island in the southern Phiilippines. There was no immediate reaction from the military to the call for money, but the army has maintained the shelling resulted from an 'accidental firing' by MILF guerrillas testing newly-acquired weapons. Initially the armed forces denied any battle took place, but subsequently acknowledged the fierce fighting. During low-level peace talks between MILF and government negotiators in Cotabato City this week, the military ordered soldiers deployed at the camp to move 12 miles (20 kms) back. The MILF is a splinter group from the Moro National Liberation Front, disgruntled with the government's failure to adequately implement a peace deal signed with the MNLF last September. ---NEWLN:Copyright 1997 by United Press InternationalNEWLN:All Rights ReservedNEWLN:---
