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Southeast Asia
Memorials eyed for war abuses in Mindanao
2012-06-06
Phillipine negotiators hoping to end a Muslim insurgency have proposed creating monuments to abuses committed on both sides, including beheadings by rebels and a president's desecration of an insurgent headquarters with a pork feast.
That's quite the moral equivalent.
The monuments would help tell the full story of the long Muslim rebellion in Mindanao and remind future generations of the brutality and blunders that helped perpetuate the violence, said chief government negotiator Marvic Leonen. He said, "We have seen that future generations would not move on and heal unless we really tell the story."
"I'm not sure where, but I'm sure we've seen it."
Rebel negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said the proposal was acceptable, but the government should first concentrate on resolving the rebellion.

The Philippine government and the 11,000-man Moro Islamic Liberation Front remain optimistic a peace treaty can be reached under President Aquino's term despite key differences that have stalled Malaysian-sponsored talks. Those differences include the size of an expanded autonomous region in southern Mindanao and the powers to be accorded to the Muslim officials who would run it.

In a new irritant, the terrorists rebels have protested the arrest by government forces of a rebel in southern Davao del Sur province over the weekend, saying it violated a cease-fire that shields the rebels from arrest in their strongholds. The military said the terrorist guerrilla, Galib dela Cruz, was wanted for murder and kidnapping and was illegally carrying assault firearms outside of a rebel camp.

Among the historic sites that could be marked are Camp Abubakar in the heartland of southern Mindanao, where then-President Joseph Estrada feasted on roast pork with his top generals during a victory party after the sprawling terrorist insurgent headquarters fell in July 2000 after a months-long military offensive. The feast took place near the ruins of a burned mosque and the terrorists' insurgents' military academy. A truckload of beer was also consumed by the victorious troops.

Estrada's actions were seen as inflammatory and sparked fierce protests at the time, although he claimed that he was not trying to disparage the Islam.
"Where would anyone get such a silly idea?"
The terrorists insurgents considered Abubakar sacred ground, where they tried to practice a puritanical Muslim life by banning luxuries like smoking.

Leonen also said a marker should be installed at Basilan, where the terrorists guerrillas were accused of beheading 10 Filipino marines during a 2007 clash.

Philippine officials said they were considering whether to ask the National Historical Institute to begin studying where the monuments and markers could be installed in what could be a joint project, Deles said, adding that versions by both sides would be examined in portraying violent events.
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Southeast Asia
Philippine army urges Moro rebels: Settle feuds, plant trees
2010-07-11
The military on Saturday called on Moro guerrillas involved in clan feuds to make amends and help restore the province’s denuded forests by planting more trees. Brigadier General Ernesto Aradanas, chief of the 603rd Army Brigade based in Matanog town, said Moro guerrillas involved in skirmishes among several families in Maguindanao could lead a more productive community life by also taking part in massive tree-planting efforts in Barangays (the Villages of) Kabasaran and Nabalawag here. The two villages constitute a major part of the erstwhile Camp Abubakar of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Commanders and guerrillas of both the MILF and the Moro National Liberation Front were reportedly embroiled in personal conflict involving some of their relatives among locally prominent families, particularly in Barangay Meti in Datu Blah Sinsuat town. “We may not have fully convinced all the residents to take part in this community endeavor, but we understand that many of its immediate beneficiaries are themselves MILF sympathizers, who care for the future of their children and the children of their children,” Aradanas said.

Aradanas, who is married to a Tausog Muslim, said a greater challenge for Moro guerrillas involved in clan conflicts would be to meet the standards of the essence of jihad, by helping rehabilitate the fast-diminishing forest cover.
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Southeast Asia
Filippino prisoners confirm stories of terror training camps in Mindanao
2005-10-31
THE SEVEN-MONTH trial of the accused in the Valentine's Day bombings in Makati City provided a window into the inner workings of the regional terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah and its local affiliate, the Abu Sayyaf, in Mindanao. Their testimonies confirmed findings by the intelligence community that the Abu Sayyaf had found sanctuary on Mt. Cararao (spelled Kararao locally) in Lanao del Sur province and that Indonesian JI members had been conducting trainings in the handling of weapons and explosives and in the laying of land mines. The terrorists had eluded pursuing soldiers by keeping their numbers low, and by moving all the time.

The testimonies also confirmed that the JI had been using Mindanao primarily as a training base, with the ASG providing the foot soldiers. Intelligence officials described Indonesia as the terror group's "war front" and Singapore and Malaysia, its "financial center." Indoctrination was a key element in that training, according to
Gappal Bannah Asali, alias "Boy Negro," the Abu Sayyaf member who escaped trial by turning state witness against his three cohorts -- Gamal Baharan, Angelo Trinidad and Indonesian Rohmat Abdurrohim. The three were sentenced on Friday to die by lethal injection.

Makati Judge Marissa Macaraig-Guillen had found the three accused guilty of carrying out the bombing of a bus in Makati in February that killed four people and wounded at least 60 others. Trinidad and Baharan, who allegedly placed the bomb in the bus, pleaded guilty. Only Rohmat pleaded not guilty. Asali said he and his colleagues "were indoctrinated on the missions that they would be undertaking."

"These missions (bombings) were supposed to take place in order to show the people in Metro Manila the anger of the Muslims against Christians because of the many acts of violence and oppression perpetrated by Christian soldiers against the Muslims," he told the court. These acts of oppression, Asali said, included the "raping of Muslim women and killing of Muslim men who were defenseless and had not committed any wrong against the Christians."

During training, recruits were required to wear "desert storm brown colored camouflage outfits." They were fully armed, he said. For their "graduation exercise," trainees were tasked with ambushing soldiers, which they did in Jolo town in Sulu province sometime in 2004, Asali said. Cararao is said to be under the operational control of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest secessionist group in Mindanao. The rebel group, however, has repeatedly denied the existence of any training camp for terrorists in the area.

In a confidential report in September 2004, the government said the MILF had been hosting terror training camps for militant groups from Indonesia and Malaysia for at least seven years. The training camp on Cararao was reportedly set up following the fall of Camp Abubakar during a July 2000 military offensive. Rohmat had told the court that he taught martial arts to a small group of armed men in Cararao for 10 months starting in 2003, for which he was paid P100,000. He had entered the country illegally months before. He insisted, however, that it was only months later that he found out that the 15 or so people at the camp were members of the Abu Sayyaf. In the jungle, the group was also known as "Alharo Cator Islamiyah." Rohmat maintained that he came to the Philippines to teach Islam and kung fu, and not bomb-making -- a defense the court found unbelievable.

During the first four months of the training, Rohmat said he physically suffered because the group was "very mobile and [traveled] from one place to another" to elude Philippine troops hunting them. The military had tagged Rohmat, alias Zacky, as a top JI associate sent to the Philippines to train bombers. Members of the cell that carried out the Valentine's Day bombing were among Rohmat's students. Asali said Rohmat personally trained him and two other persons in bomb-making techniques. That training lasted one month and two weeks. During the time that he spent in Cararao, Asali said he saw Abu Sayyaf leaders Khadaffy Janjalani and Abu Solaiman, as well as Baharan and Trinidad.
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Southeast Asia
Philippines asks US to keep MILF off the terror list
2005-03-31
The Philippines has asked Washington not to include a Muslim separatist group, which has been linked to Jemaah Islamiyah and other radical groups, on a U.S. terrorism blacklist, saying the move could derail peace talks, an official said Wednesday.

There has been speculation that Washington has been considering whether to add the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to its list of terrorist organizations due to widespread reports, mostly from Philippine police and military officials, about the rebel group's alleged terrorism links.

Asked at a news conference about such prospects, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the government has asked Washington to hold off on any listing to foster Malaysian-brokered talks between Manila and the MILF that are scheduled to resume in Kuala Lumpur next month.

"The national government has made it known to the U.S. that maybe we should give the peace process a chance to move forward," Ermita said. "We have somehow expressed to them that the MILF should not be included in the list of foreign terrorist organizations. That is for the moment."

Teresita Deles, a presidential adviser on the peace talks, said placing the MILF on the U.S. terror list could derail the talks.

Communist guerrillas suspended peace negotiations after Philippine officials declined their demand for the government to push for their removal from U.S. and European Union terror lists.

While many military and police officials point to strong links between MILF guerrillas and Jemaah Islamiyah, including joint training in MILF strongholds and involvement in terrorist plots, the president's top aides have said some rebels appear to have linked up with the foreign militants without the knowledge of their leaders.

The MILF has renounced terrorism and repeatedly denied any links with Jemaah Islamiyah and other foreign militant groups. It also has forged a cease-fire with the government that has halted major clashes for months.

Some security officials have said guerrillas from groups like the extremist Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah have sought refuge in MILF camps, believing troops would not launch offensives there to safeguard the cease-fire and peace talks.

U.S. officials have expressed concern about the presence of Jemaah Islamiyah training camps in the southern Philippines, saying militants acquire bombing and other deadly skills there that they could use anywhere. The Jemaah Islamiyah camps are located in MILF lairs, Philippine security officials say.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Wednesday visited the MILF's main stronghold, Camp Abubakar, which was captured by troops a few years ago, and inspected U.S.-funded projects with American officials.
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Southeast Asia
We Want Peace to Prevail, Says Philippine Separatist Group
2005-03-25
An official of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) yesterday said the group is looking into a claim by a suspected Jemaah Islamiyah member that he has helped train separatists in the southern Philippines. MILF spokesman Eid (Lipless Eddie) Kabalu stressed that while the group has no ties with any terrorist group, its leaders want any doubt to be cleared. "We have no links whatsoever with the Jemaah Islamiyah or other terror groups, such as the Abu Sayyaf, and the MILF leadership has repeatedly warned its members not to harbor terrorists. But just the same the MILF ordered an investigation into the allegations," Kabalu said yesterday in a phone interview from his base in Central Mindanao.

Earlier this week, an Indonesian man whom the military arrested in the southern province of Maguindanao on terrorism charges, allegedly confessed to his interrogators that he and several other Jemaah Islamiyah members were helping local guerrillas in their war for a separate Islamic state in Mindanao. Rohmat, who is also known as Zacky, admitted that MILF forces provided him sanctuary in Central Mindanao before his arrest on March 16 at a checkpoint in Datu Saudi Ampatuan town in Maguindanao province, a stronghold of the separatist group. He said he entered the Philippines in year 2000 and trained MILF rebels in Camp Abubakar As-Siddique in Maguindanao and later Abu Sayyaf militants in making bombs and how to use cell phones to trigger explosions. Rohmat said Filipino terror groups are plotting to attack civilian targets across the country. Rohmat in a brief interview with reporters Wednesday, said the Abu Sayyaf was plotting major attacks in the southern cities of Davao and Cagayan de Oro and also in Manila.
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Southeast Asia
JI member was an Abu Sayyaf bomb trainer
2005-03-23
HE LOOKED young enough to pass for a teenager. And nothing in his lean frame suggested he was what the military portrayed him to be: a man who trained terror bombers. A faint hint of a smile even crossed Rohmat's face when the Armed Forces yesterday presented the Indonesian -- hands bound in cuffs -- to the media, saying he helped plan with the Abu Sayyaf Group leaders the Valentine's Day bombings in Makati City. Intelligence officials said Rohmat trained the Abu Sayyaf in bomb making, particularly the use of mobile phones to trigger explosions.

Like many Indonesians, Rohmat goes by one name only. Linked to the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden, the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) has been blamed for a string of terrorist attacks in Southeast Asia, including the 2002 bombings at Indonesia's Bali resort, which killed nearly 200 people. "He is a big fish," Armed Forces public information chief Lieutenant Colonel Buenaventura Pascual said. "He was responsible for training the people involved in the Makati attack."

A military statement said Rohmat -- also known by the aliases "Zaki," Hamdan and Akil -- had admitted a mouthful to investigators:
• He was present when the ASG leaders planned the Feb. 14 bombings in Makati, General Santos City and Davao City, which killed eight people and wounded more than 150;

• ASG's senior leader Khadaffy Janjalani and Commander Abu Solaiman "ordered and financed" the bombings; and

• He was given sanctuary by members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to evade capture after he was wounded in November.
If what Rohmat said was true, it would belie earlier military reports that Janjalani had been killed in a military bombing in Maguindanao province last year.

Only 25 years old, Rohmat was the liaison officer with the ASG of the Southeast Asian regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah, the military statement said. Tall and slim, he carried a deep scar on the right side of his mouth -- the only visible mark in his face that jarred with his boyish looks. He and a Filipino companion were arrested at a military checkpoint in Datu Saudi Ampatuan town, Maguindanao, last March 16 while on board a motorcycle, the military said. Soldiers became suspicious of him because he could not speak Tagalog well.

Rohmat was the latest of a number of Indonesian militants arrested in the country in recent years for alleged involvement with JI. They included three Indonesians who, along with an ASG member, were arrested in Zamboanga last Dec. 14. The top JI operative in the country, Fathur Roman Al-Ghozi, was killed in North Cotabato province in 2003 after escaping from a Camp Crame detention center. "With Zaki's capture, the Philippine government dealt another serious blow to the JI's and the ASG's financial linkages, operational capability and organizational morale," declared Armed Forces Deputy Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Edilberto Adan as the Indonesian stood behind him. "It was revealed by our suspect Zaki that he was present during the planning of the bombing. Charges that will be filed are now being prepared," Adan said.

When pressed by reporters, Adan could not elaborate on the alleged bomb conspiracy. "The name Zaki has been appearing in our various investigations of captured personalities," he said. "It is very possible that he is involved in the other atrocities or operations of the Abu Sayyaf in the previous years."

Authorities said Rohmat illegally entered the country through Zamboanga City in January 2000. He told investigators that he was appointed by a JI leader named Zulkifly, a top regional terror suspect arrested in Malaysia two years ago, as liaison officer with the ASG, Adan said in a statement. Adan said Rohmat trained in the MILF's Camp Abubakar in Maguindanao and, when it was overrun by government forces in 2000, Rohmat's group moved to Camp Jabal Quba in Butig town, Lanao del Sur province. There he finished top of his "class" in October 2002 and the following year began training ASG members on explosives in Patikul, Jolo, Sulu.

Rohmat also told investigators that he was wounded last November in an air raid in Datu Piang town but was sheltered by some elements of the MILF's 105th Base Command while he recuperated, the military said.

Authorities immediately cleared the MILF of links to the JI. "The involvement of the MILF here is never on an organizational basis. Certain members may now and then cooperate, never the organization," Defense Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor said. On the other hand, he said, the "tactical alliance between the Abu Sayyaf and JI has shown itself several times in the past."

Immigration Commissioner Alipio Fernandez said he issued a "mission order" against Rohmat last March 13 based on Army intelligence reports. The mission order empowers immigration agents to detain a suspected illegal alien.

Fernandez said it was only during Rohmat's interrogation that the latter confessed his true identity. He said the Indonesian would undergo deportation proceedings for being an undesirable alien but only after criminal charges against him were resolved. Malacañang commended the military and the Bureau of Immigration for Rohmat's arrest. "The Philippines is doing its share in fighting terrorism in this part of the world and we will continue to work with our neighbors in seeing to it that the threat is contained," Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said.

Bunye said the government drive against terrorism had nothing to do with religion. "Religious faith is never an issue in our campaign against terrorism," Bunye said. "This is a matter of enforcing the rule of law among all, regardless of creed, ethnic origin or social station." Bunye added: "We have to deal with the bad eggs hiding under the cloak of religion to foment terrorist goals."
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Southeast Asia
Filippinos warn of MILF attacks as peace processor resumes
2005-02-02
Silvestre Afable, the government's chief peace negotiator, warned on Wednesday that hard-core militants may step up attacks in Mindanao to try to sabotage talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Afable, who is also communications director for President Arroyo, said informal talks hosted by Malaysia would resume in the next few days despite clashes last month that tested a truce in place since July 2003.

"We feel that as the peace talks move forward and any substantive success is gained, the more we face the risk of extremists who would want to derail the negotiations," Afable told a briefing for foreign media in Manila.

"Terrorism is one of the challenges we are facing -- not only as a threat to law and order but as a threat to peace in Mindanao."

He said the regional militant network Jema'ah Islamiyah (JI) and other groups, working with small factions of local rebels, opposed the talks between the MILF and the government.

While the MILF leadership insists its ranks are solid in the march towards peace, security analysts also see risks that some rebels will break away as a deal draws nearer.

The rebels deny any formal ties to the al Qaeda-linked JI, blamed for the Bali bombings in October 2002 and other attacks in the region. But analysts say personal connections remain strong between some MILF commanders and the foreign militants.

A peace settlement with the 11,000-member MILF would help to counter security concerns among foreign investors and stimulate development of the resource-rich southern Philippines.

The informal talks in Malaysia are designed to tackle issues such as ancestral land, security and rehabilitation of conflict areas before a formal deal is signed to end a 35-year separatist insurgency that has claimed 120,000 lives.

Afable said the upcoming meeting in Kuala Lumpur would focus on the agenda of setting aside land for at least four million Muslims from 13 tribal groups in the southern Philippines.

Some local companies and individual property owners, many of them Christians, oppose the idea of giving up their land.

The government and the MILF agreed on the cease-fire and rehabilitation during previous sessions. Plans for projects and funding are being drawn up with help from the World Bank.

The Philippines began negotiating with the MILF in 1997 after signing a peace deal with the more secular Moro National Liberation Front in September 1996.

But the talks bogged down after soldiers attacked and occupied the MILF's main base in Camp Abubakar in July 2000.

Arroyo restarted the peace process after she took office in early 2001, inviting Malaysia -- a mainly Muslim nation -- to broker the talks.

A 17-month cease-fire was technically broken in January when a band of rogue rebels attacked an army outpost and the military bombed what it said was a hideout used by the renegades.

The government and the MILF have said the clashes would not derail the talks, which had earlier been expected to resume on February 1.
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Southeast Asia
JI members say Bashir's the boss
2004-12-01
Two Malaysian militants testifying in the trial of Abu Bakar Ba'asyir acknowledged on Tuesday that the elderly cleric was the spiritual leader of the regional terrorist group, Jamaah Islamiyah (JI). Malaysians Syamsul Bahri and Amran bin Mansur, who fled to Indonesia in 2002 and 2003 respectively to avoid arrest by the Malaysian police, also admitted that they were members of JI, which is the United Nations has declared a terrorist organization.

Bahri said he was told by Mukhlas, who was sentenced to death for his role in the Bali bombings, that the white-haired cleric assumed the JI leadership after founder Abdullah Sungkar died in 1999. Meanwhile, Amran, also known by his Indonesian name, Andi Saputro, said that he had also heard that Ba'asyir took over the JI leadership following the death of Abdullah Sungkar.

"I did hear people saying that Ba'aysir was selected to replace Abdullah Sungkar as JI leader but some people also said that it was Abu Rusdan, not Abu Bakar Ba'asyir," said Amran.

Both witnesses admitted that they had received military training during their time as JI members from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s. "Mukhlas, who is my brother-in-law, offered me an opportunity to go to Pakistan to learn more about Islam, and when I arrived there I found much to my surprise that it was actually some sort of military training that was involved," Bahri said. He also said that he had been training to handle explosives in Pakistan and later learned how to make detonators in Solo, Central Java, after he fled to Indonesia in 2002.

Amran also admitted that he went to Camp Abubakar in the southern Philippines to receive further military training for around one month in 1998, and continued his training in Pakistan before heading for Kabul, Afghanistan, where he stayed for four months learning how to handle weapons.

Both witnesses said that they knew Azahari and Noordin Moch Top, believed to be the masterminds behind the Mariott bombing in August last year.

"At first I did not believe that JI members were behind the Bali and Marriott bombings because as far as I knew, our teachings did not permit such things (bombings). "However, I later learned that my fellow members Azahari and Noordin were suspected by the police of taking part in the Marriott bombing," Bahri said.
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Southeast Asia
Hambali providing intel on JI
2004-06-23
Hambali, once dubbed the face of terror in South-East Asia, is providing vital information to security agencies on the operations of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda movement in the region. It is learnt that the Indonesian preacher, who had plotted and carried out a militant campaign, has told his interrogators how al-Qaeda had funded the Jemaah Islamiah, the extremist group he headed that has been blamed for church bombings in Jakarta and the deadly 2002 Bali bomb blasts. “He is talking but we want to know more,” said a regional security source who has been receiving periodic reports from the American interrogators. However, security sources declined to reveal details of the funding as investigations were still in progress.
"We can say no more!"
Hambali, or Riduan Isamuddin, who was the brains behind the fanatical JI that has been accused of carrying out a series of church bombings in the Indonesian capital and the Bali blasts that killed over 200 people, is also said to have spoken about his meetings with Khalid Sheikh Mohamed, a brother-in-law of Osama. Khalid, who has since been arrested, allegedly delivered money to Hambali to finance his JI operations. The sources said that the Americans, who had yet to allow regional security forces to quiz Hambali, wanted to know how Hambali arranged for militants from Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines to travel to Afghanistan via Pakistan. “Hambali was said to have helped provide these extremists with forged documents purportedly for them to study religion in several madrasah in Pakistan,” a source said. 
Forged documents and Pakistan do seem to go together.
In Afghanistan and in the southern Philippines, these terrorists were given arms training before they embarked on their series of bombing campaigns in Indonesia and the Philippines. The intelligence agencies also want to hear from Hambali whether training camps were set up in Indonesia for recruits in what were known as Camp Bushra and Camp Abubakar. It is understood that the intelligence agencies were also trying to find out who the other key al-Qaeda leaders that Hambali had met and their roles. 

Intelligence sources said the interrogation focused on Hambali’s tactical support, financial capabilities, cell network and associated organisations of JI in the region. “The agencies are also keen to trace the JI’s links to the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) and the Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines,” a source said. The source said this was vital as two of the JI’s most wanted men, Malaysians Dr Azahari Husin and Noordin Mohd Top, were still at large and posed a serious threat to the region. It is learnt that authorities probing Hambali’s activities in the region recently seized several of his personal belongings, including photographs taken before his capture. The Star managed to obtain a new photograph of Hambali who had used it to get a fake Spanish passport in his bid to elude the police dragnet. Gone were the beard, spectacles and white skullcap he had used at the time of his arrest in Thailand last August. In the photograph, which has never been published, Hambali, known to be a master of disguise, is pictured wearing a Western-style jacket. Not only did he change his hairstyle, he also changed his name to Daniel Suarez Naviera.
Now he's a captured master of disguise.
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Southeast Asia
Arrested al-Qaeda links MILF to terrorism
2004-06-06
An Egyptian suspected of Al-Qaeda membership has revealed links between the terror network and the Philippines’ main Muslim separatist group, the military chief said Thursday.
Another 'dog bites man' story.
Hassan Mustafa Bakry entered the Philippines in 1999 with six other unidentified foreigners and trained local Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas in demolitions in camps on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, General Narciso Abaya said. Bakry, who was arrested in the town of Datu Piang on Tuesday, had even helped to defend the MILF stronghold Camp Abubakar before it fell to government forces in 2000, Abaya said. Abaya said there would be a further investigation of Bakry’s allegations, adding that this issue had already been raised in a joint ceasefire monitoring committee between the MILF and the government. "We have long suspected that there are foreign instructors that were giving instructions on explosives, demolitions and even... in the manufacture of RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades). They do have links to the Al-Qaeda," Abaya added. He expressed hope that Bakry would yield more information after further spirited questioning.
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Southeast Asia
Philippine Separatists Deny Hosting Egyptian Terror Suspect
2004-06-03
The separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) yesterday vehemently rejected charges that it hosted Hassan Bakre, an Egyptian national who had been arrested in the southern Philippines over alleged links to the Al-Qaeda network. Ameril Umbra, chief of the MILF’s 109th Base Command, said he cannot remember any instance of Bakre visiting the group’s Camp Omar, “much more to taught inside the camp.”
"Nope. Nope. Never happened."
“Hasan Al-Bakre has nothing to do with the MILF. He is just a simple Egyptian trader framed by the authorities for a still unknown reasons. He is innocent of all those charges,” separatist spokesman Eid Kabalu said in a separate interview.
"Framed! I tell yez he wuz framed!"
Earlier in the day, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff Gen. Narciso Abaya said the Egyptian national had confessed to having even fought with MILF members against government troops four years ago. Abaya and other military officials said Hassan trained with other Egyptian and Indonesian militants at the MILF camp. He was said to be a bomb instructor. Abaya said Hassan arrived in the country in 1999 from Malaysia along with six other foreigners. He stayed at theMILF’s main base, Camp Abubakar in Maguindanao province, and later hid in Camp Omar after government troops captured Camp Abubakar in 2000 Abaya said Hassan is also suspected to have have trained some members of the Jemaah Islamiyah, an alleged chapter of the Al-Qaeda in southeast Asia, in demolition.”
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Southeast Asia
Detained Turkish JI planned attacks
2004-04-02
Four Arabic teachers from Turkey have been arrested in Cotabato City for alleged ties with the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) regional terror network, officials said Thursday. A highly classified military report also warned members of the Regional Disaster Coordinating Council in Koronadal City of the JI plan to bomb key cities in central Mindanao.

The Bureau of Immigration (B.I.) said Thursday that it has arrested in Cotabato City four Arabic teachers from Turkey on suspicion of having ties with the Jema'ah Islamiah (JI) regional terror network. The Turks, identified by their employer as Istanbul natives Ismael Kocabiyik, Alpaslan Gul, Ahmed Kaya, and Mansour Omercikoglu, were detained by Immigration Bureau agents late Wednesday in this southern city, Cotabato Mayor Muslimin Sema told AFP. Earlier, one of their wives told police that men in uniform claiming they were immigration agents abducted them. The four, aged between 29 and 34, are Arabic instructors at the Eeman Institute, a private school owned by a Cotabato-based government official, Zamzamin Ampatuan. Ampatuan, the executive director of President Arroyo's Office of Muslim Affairs, said immigration agents showed up at the school with arrest warrants authorizing the detention of the four for "alleged links with the JI."

Ampatuan rejected the charge. "That is not true. These people are peace-loving educators who have been helping us run our educational institute," he said. A spokesman for the Turkish embassy in Manila said he had no details of the arrests except what he had heard from media reports. He said the government had not contacted the embassy. Ampatuan said all four board at his house with their Filipino wives.
Gee. Golly. You don't think Mr. Minister of Muslim Affairs is involved, do ya?
In Koronadal City, Lt. Col. Franklin del Prado, 6th Infantry Division assistant chief of staff, confirmed that JI operatives are in central Mindanao and are waiting for the right time to strike at public places in the region. "JI operatives are planning to conduct bombings and sabotage [operations] in the cities of General Santos and Koronadal, like public markets, bus terminals and churches," del Prado said, reading from a folder boldly marked "Secret." Del Prado's revelation shrouded the conference room in silence, where some 50 people gathered for the first joint meeting of the Regional Disaster Coordinating Council-Central Mindanao and Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council of South Cotabato province. The military official said the JI operatives already in Mindanao have made Cotabato City their base of operation, with a certain Zulkipli allegedly calling the shots from there. Del Prado stressed that the JI is "just lying low for quite sometime"; apparently owing to the arrest of Taufik Refqui, who was arrested last Oct. 3 in Cotabato City. Refqui, an Indonesian who was arrested by the Police Anti-Crime Emergency Response team, had earlier claimed that JI recruits are training within areas controlled by the Moro rebels.

Authorities tagged Refqui as the second ranking JI leader in the Philippines, next to slain terrorist Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi, who was killed last October in Pigkawayan, North Cotabato, reportedly after shooting it out with law enforcers. Del Prado said the operation of JI agents in the area was also hampered by the arrest of an alleged financier, a certain Jaybe Ofracio, last January in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Ofracio was arrested on charges that he has been laundering funds for the JI operating in Northern Ireland. Reports said the Irish police have been closely monitoring Ofracio's activities in Northern Ireland for the past two years before his arrest. Del Prado alleged that evidences seized from the house of Ofracio's wife in Cotabato City pointed to the suspect's apparent link with the JI. In spite of their "hibernation," the JI elements, del Prado told the RDCC participants, remain a vital threat to the stability of the region, based on information gathered lately by the military intelligence community.

The military official also repeated previous government pronouncements that the MILF, the largest Moro rebel group in Southern Philippines, is allegedly giving protection to the JI operatives in Mindanao. He said JI elements trained in Camp Abubakar, then the largest camp of the MILF, before it fell on the hands of the government in the 2000 all-out-war ordered by the deposed President Estrada. In another report, the General Santos City Police Office (GSCPO) bomb disposal unit on Thursday said the suspicious package found at the General Santos public market Wednesday morning did not contain any explosive component. Children alerted the police Wednesday after they found the package abandoned at the parking lot of the west side section of the public market. The GSCPO bomb disposal unit immediately went to the area to check the reported suspicious object. Police initially found batteries, plastic materials tied with electrical tape, and a powder substance inside a plastic bag. Senior Insp. Jomar Yap, city police bomb disposal unit chief, earlier said they would subject the "object" to a test to determine if it contains explosive materials, which later turned out negative. Yap said while the incident was a false alarm, they still considered it as a bomb threat, but did not say which group is responsible for it.
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