COTABATO CITY, 23 March — The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) yesterday said reports that Osama Bin Laden met with its leaders in Mindanao five years ago were wrong.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said the report was “nonsense” since Bin Laden had never visited Mindanao.
North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol yesterday said Bin Laden met MILF chair Hashim Salamat and other officials of the rebel group sometime in 1997.
Piñol would not identify his source, but insisted his information was reliable and that he would not have revealed Bin Laden’s visit if the source lacked credibility.
Bin Laden allegedly stayed in Camp Abubakar for two days with Salamat and Salamat’s senior religious adviser, Abu Halil Yahya, where he was briefed about the MILF’s capability, Piñol claimed.
After the meeting, he said, the MILF launched a series of atrocities including the bombing of a ferry in Ozamiz City in February 2000. At least 32 people were killed in that attack.
Piñol said it only proved that the MILF forms part of Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda Network.
But Kabalu said the MILF has no ties with the Al-Qaeda or any terrorist organization.
He said it was Muhammad ibn Nasser Al-Aboodi, the deputy secretary-general of the Muslim World League (MWL) who visited Mindanao in October of 1997, as invited guest to grace the opening ceremony of the formal peace talks between the government and the MILF at the Dawah Center in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao.
“It is true that Al-Aboodi was met by Omar Pasigan and Abukhalil Yahya, the two being a member of the invitation and reception committee,” Kabalu said.
He noted that even the spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan, had said they have no information about Bin Laden’s visit to Mindanao in 1997.
“Apparently, Piñol is looking only for justification to support his standing petition to the government asking for the extension of the Balikatan Exercises in Central Mindanao,” said Kabalu.
The Balikatan Exercises is the name given to the joint operation of Philippine and American troops against Abu Sayyaf bandits in Basilan.
Piñol said the military’s intelligence network must have known about the visit and that he could not understand “why they are hiding this.”
He said it would not be difficult for anybody to establish the link.
He said the MILF uses the same weapons used by the Taleban, the former rulers of Afghanistan, which enjoyed Bin Laden’s support.
Piñol said he does not intend to derail the ongoing peace negotiations between the government peace panel and the MILF when he decided to reveal Bin Laden’s visit.
“The intention of my revelation is to forewarn the government to go slow in absolving the MILF of any link with Al-Qaeda, (and for) the MILF to look into their ranks on how deep their members are with Al-Qaeda,” he said.
