February 1, 2010 – The Moro Islamic Liberation Front – Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (MILF – CCCH) filed a compliant to its government counterpart on the brutal killing of civilian at Sitio Limbo Kassa, Barangay Magkawa, Albarka, Basilan two nights ago.

Najim Nitih, an innocent civilian and resident of Magkawa, was fired upon at Sitio Limbo Kassa at 720pm January 30, 2010 while driving a motorcycle on way to Poblacion Tipo-Tipo, Basilan to fix a damaged water reservoir.

Local residents and relatives of the victim, according to spot report to MILF, expressed belief that unidentified troops of the Philippine Marine were the ones who fired at Nitih from their detachment that is some meters away from scene of the incident.

They even chided that “after the Marines conducted a humanitarian program at Magkawa last January 28, Thursday, with American soldiers, now the Marines killed an innocent civilian in at Magkawa,” the report stated.

Nitih’s cadaver was recovered at 7:45pm in an area 70 meters away from the Marines detachment. He sustained multiple gunshots on his body, private part, legs and arms. He was buried at 11pm same night pursuant to Islamic injunction.

But local residents and even officials do not have the courage to come out and confide their testimonies on the incident for fear of their security, said a source from the area.

The complaint by MILF CCCH cited that the reported killing of Nitih blatantly violated the 1997 Agreement on the General Cessation of Hostilities (AGCH) and the 2009 Agreement on the Protection of Civilians between the government and MILF.

“We filed a protest so that we can utilize the mechanisms of the peace process particularly of the ceasefire agreement and be able to find out the proximate truth on the alleged killing of Nitih by government troops,” Toks Ebrahim, Chairman of the MILF CCCH, told luwaran.com/net.