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Friday, October 10, 2003
Escaped companion of Al-Ghozi captured in Zambo
By Miko Santos
MANILA -- The military is confident it will recapture elusive Indonesian terrorist suspect Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi before US President George W. Bush sets foot on Philippine soil next week.
The military's optimism arises from the recapturing of an alleged Abu Sayyaf member in Dumalinao town, Zamboanga del Sur Wednesday.
Suspected Abu Sayyaf member Omar Lasal Opik, together with Jemaah Islamiya (JI) bomb-maker Al-Ghozi, escaped from a Camp Crame, a maximum-security jail in Quezon City, nearly three months ago.
Opik was arrested at a checkpoint near the southern town of Dumalinao town in Zamboanga del Sur province by a special task force along with another Moro militant identified as Mukhtar Sali, Colonel Roland Rodriguez said.
With Opik's recapture, the military believes that the re-arrest of Al-Ghozi is not far behind.
Rodriguez, head of the government task force assigned to recapture the fugitives, also said Al-Ghozi might be near Dumalinao, where Opik was captured. Authorities also believe Al-Ghozi sought refuge with the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebel group, a claim the MILF has repeatedly denied.
Refusing to divulge elaborate details regarding the ongoing manhunt, Rodriguez said Al-Ghozi's refuge is becoming "thinner and thinner".
"We've zeroed in on the Baganian Peninsula in Zamboanga del Sur and in at least four coastal towns in the nearby Zamboanga Sibugay province as probable hiding places of al-Ghozi," added Rodriguez.
Troops recovered two .45 caliber pistols from Opik, also called Lasal, who did not resist arrest. At least 11 others traveling with them were questioned and released, the officer said.
Meanwhile, Armed Forces vice chief of staff Rodolfo Garcia said, "we can get information from Lasal (on Al-Ghozi's whereabouts)." He also said military intelligence indicates Al-Ghozi is still in the area.
Lieutenant General Garcia said Lasal was now in the custody of the military's Southern Command (Southcom).
Opik was one of two militants who walked out of the national police headquarters in Camp Crame in Quezon City with Al-Ghozi and Aldulmukim Edris, who was killed in a clash with soldiers in northern Mindanao last August.
The daring escape also set back the regional effort to combat terrorism, since Al-Ghozi was one of the most senior Jemaah Islamiyah militants in captivity.
Al-Ghozi was serving 12 years for illegally possessing more than a ton of explosives for use in a massive bombing campaign across Southeast Asia. He also admitted involvement in a series of bombings that killed 22 people in Manila in Dec. 30, 2000.
Jemaah Islamiyah was blamed for last year's Bali bombings and the blast at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in August.
The government is under pressure to recapture al-Ghozi before the visit here next week of US President Bush, whose government is helping Manila train troops going after the Abu Sayyaf and JI in Mindanao.
Preparations
In light of the impending Bush visit on October 18, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesperson Daniel Lucero said the military has already reinforced security at possible targets.
"We are identifying possible targets and we have actually beefed up our security in some of these soft targets, like embassies, malls, clubs and hotels," Lieutenant Colonel Lucero said.
Bush, who counts the Philippines as one of his main allies in the US-led war on terror, will spend eight hours in Manila on Oct. 18 on his way to an Asia
Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Bangkok.
"With al-Ghozi on the loose, we presume that he has already contacted some of his companions outside the Philippines so we're very much concerned about the movements of the JI here in the Philippines," Lucero said.
Meanwhile, Australian Defense Minister Robert Hill, who was in the country during Al-Ghozi's controversial escape, warned in Canberra Thursday that JI's network appears intact despite arrests around Southeast Asia and of a potential renewed focus on targets in the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines.
He said Manila is the most target-rich environment in Southeast Asia, considering its Western-style nightspots, hotels and fast-food franchises -- the kind of soft targets that appeal to JI's operating mode.
But National Security Adviser Roilo Golez downplayed Hill's the warning.
Golez said there is no basis for the warning nor are there any specific terrorist threats, whether from the Jemaah Islamiyah or other terrorist cells, against the Philippines.
"We are closely monitoring the Jemaah Islamiyah situation, in close coordination with security and intelligence counterparts in the region. There is a general alert in view of possible retaliatory attacks in reaction to the arrest of Hambali and the sentencing of Indon JI members like Samudra and Amrozi," he said.
He added that the general alert covers several countries in South East Asia and Northern Australia "which is included in the Jemaah Islamiyah's vision of a Pan-Islamic State." Miko Santos/She Torres/AFP
(October 10, 2003 issue)
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