Philippine Muslims slam military plot to bomb mosques

Muslim groups yesterday condemned an alleged military plot to secretly bomb mosques in the southern Philippines -- one of the claims made by military officers detained for a failed uprising.

Army Captain Milo Maestrecampo, among the detained leaders of the July 27 uprising, told a nationally televised Senate inquiry last week that his commander had ordered him to hurl grenades at mosques in Davao city in retaliation for suspected Muslim guerrilla attacks.

Maestrecampo said he didn't follow the order -- but the mosques were still attacked later. He said that he didn't know who carried out the attacks, but that he suspected other soldiers had heeded the order he'd ignored.

He said the order came shortly after deadly bomb attacks on an airport and a wharf in Davao, a predominantly Christian city 960km southeast of Manila. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a large Muslim separatist group, was blamed.

Military officials said they would investigate Maestrecampo's claim, and others by the renegade officers and soldiers.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said many Muslims were shocked by the claims, and added his group would raise its concerns when the rebels resume peace talks with the government.

"This is why the war in Mindanao probably would not end in the immediate future," Kabalu said, referring to the southern region that is home to the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines' Muslim minority.

"They [the soldiers] don't have any intention to respect those who live here. They don't care at all," Kabalu said.

Abhoud Syed Lingga, president of another Muslim group, the Bangsa Moro People Consultative Assembly, said Maestrecampo's allegation validated complaints of military atrocities against Muslims, who now have another reason to push for an independent Islamic state in the south.

"Can you imagine that?" Lingga asked in disbelief. "Where is our sense of security? If we're not secure in this republic, we better have our own."

The rebels, who seized an upscale residential tower and a mall in Manila's financial center earlier this month, planned their revolt to draw attention to military corruption, incompetence and neglect of combat soldiers -- complaints they claim Arroyo has ignored.

The government has said the uprising was part of a larger political plot to oust Arroyo. The soldiers insist they acted on their own but acknowledge demanding that Arroyo and top security officials step down.

Kabalu said a claim by the mutineers that Muslim guerrillas bought weapons from the military was true.

"About 20 to 40 percent of our military needs come from the military indirectly, meaning through third-party gunrunners who deal with the military," Kabalu told The Associated Press by telephone.

"They really sell. We don't know who because that's not important to us. What is important is we get the materials."