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Tuesday, July 06, 2004
Al-Qaeda linked group exporting terror from Mindanao: US
MANILA -- The United States said Tuesday it remained deeply concerned about terrorist training camps in Mindanao run by Islamic militants with links to the Al-Qaeda network.
US ambassador Francis Ricciardone said the camps on Mindanao island were run by Jemaah Islamiyah, the group blamed for the 2002 bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali and other attacks across Southeast Asia.
"With respect to the Philippines we remain very concerned at the presence of training camps of the Jemaah Islamiyah," he told the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (Focap) in Manila.
He said group's activities on Mindanao, where Muslim rebels have been fighting an anti-government insurgency for decades, posed a threat not only to the Philippines but to the wider region.
"When you train someone in Mindanao to device bombs and how to plant them, that becomes a threat and it's not limited just to the immediate neighborhood where that person was trained," Ricciardone said.
"They can go throughout the Philippines, throughout Southeast Asia, throughout the world, and murder people. So it is a continuing threat."
The ambassador said JI had been able to set up shop in Mindanao because of the weak rule of law in the area.
Filipino security officials acknowledge that JI militants, including some who have been linked to bombings in Indonesia, trained until the late 1990s in guerrilla camps on Mindanao.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Philippines' largest separatist guerrilla group, operated some of the camps.
The MILF publicly condemned terrorism last year as it prepared to hold peace talks with President Gloria Arroyo's government, but the subsequent death of its leader Salamat Hashim have left negotiations in limbo.
Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita says the authorities estimate there were still around 40 Jemaah Islamiyah militants in the Mount Cararao region of central Mindanao. He says most of them are Indonesians who are training local Muslims.
JI's ultimate goal is to unite Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and the southern Philippines into a fundamentalist Islamic state. It uses terrorist attacks as its most high-profile weapon to destabilise regional governments.
Six suspected Filipino JI members were arrested in southern Manila last week after police foiled what they described as a plot to bomb the June 30 inauguration of President Arroyo.
Ricciardone said terrorist funds were flowing across borders and he said there was a direct link to the Philippines from the Middle East.
"We know that there are at least ideological links and personal links from here to the Middle East, from Mindanao to the Middle East," he said.
"There are personal connections, family connections, (they) travel back and forth and they are quite worrisome."
He said local groups drew inspiration, as well as sometimes weaponry and funding, from international terrorist organizations.
The US government announced this week that it was sending small numbers of troops to Mindanao to give Filipino troops counter-terrorist training. About 1,000 US special forces troops were deployed in the south in 2002.
Ricciardone also expressed disappointment at the failure of the new MILF leadership to resume peace talks with the Philippine government.
The US Congress last year allotted 30 million dollars to support the development of Mindanao once Manila signs a peace treaty with the MILF, but the ambassador said part of the funds have since been reallocated. |
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