ZAMBOANGA CITY, 16 August 2003 — The Philippines’ largest separatist group yesterday joined Manila in welcoming the capture of top terrorist suspect Hambali, saying it hoped the arrest would mean an end to terrorist attacks in Southeast Asia.
“Let’s hope that Hambali’s capture would put an end to terrorism in Southeast Asia,” Eid Kabalu, spokesman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) told Arab News in a telephone interview.
Hambali, whose real name is Riduan bin Isamuddin, was captured by Thai authorities in Ayutthaya City early this week and is being interrogated by US Federal agents.
He had been tagged as chief of the Jemaah Islamiyah movement — known as the chapter of the international terrorist group Al-Qaeda — which had been linked to several bombin g attacks in the Philippines and Indonesia.
Philippine authorities have linked Hambali’s group to the MILF, a charge the separatist group had strongly denied.
Kabalu said: “We are not in anyway connected with Hambali nor has the MILF any association with him or links with the Jemaah Islamiya and Al-Qaeda network. MILF leaders have never met Hambali in the past or any of his followers or JI or Al-Qaeda members.”
Kabalu said the MILF is supporting the global war on terrorism, but he also urged world leaders to help resolve the Israel-Palestinian problem, which he claimed is one of the reasons why JI exists.
“If the Palestinian problem is resolved then there will be no more justification to spread the attacks,” Kabalu said from the MILF headquarters somewhere in Central Mindanao.
In Manila, authorities said they wanted Hambali to stand trial before a local court for terror attacks.
“The capture of Hambali is a big blow to Jemaah Islamiyah and the world terrorist network. He is considered one of the region’s deadliest terrorists,” National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said.
Foreign Secretary Blas Ople said that Hambali should stand trial in the Philippines for a series of bombings in December 2000 that killed 22 people.
“We will be coordinating with all authorities concerned to ensure that Hambali is made to pay for his crimes,” Ople said.
Hamabali’s cohorts, Indonesian JI bomb-maker Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi and MILF leader Saifullah Muklis Yunos, had earlier confessed in court their role in the December 2002 bombings in Manila.
Al-Ghozi, who was sentenced to 17 years in prison for illegal possession of explosives, later fled from a high-security prison in suburban Quezon City last month. He is now the subject of a massive manhunt.
Yesterday, troops recaptured Omar Opik Kasak, an Abu Sayyaf bandit who escaped with Al-Ghozi, somewhere in the southern Philippines.
Last week, Abdulmukim Edris, another Abu Sayyaf man and who escaped with Al-Ghozi, was killed shortly after he was supposedly captured from a military checkpoint also in the southern Philippines.
Col. Roland Rodriguez, commander of a task force in-charge of pursuing Al-Ghozi, claimed that an MILF leader named Salip Aloy Alsree is hiding Al-Ghozi.
But Kabalu had said the gunmen are in no way connected with the MILF.
