ZAMBOANGA CITY, 18 February 2007 — The United States government has asked the Philippines’ largest Muslim separatist group for help in capturing Indonesian and Filipino militants with links to the Al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah terror networks, the US Embassy and rebel leaders said yesterday.
US Embassy officials made the unusual request during a meeting on Thursday with leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the main southern Philippine island of Mindanao, said rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu.
He said the meeting, which took place inside a rebel base in Shariff Kabunsuan province, centered on the hunt for Jemaah Islamiyah militants Dulmatin and Umar Patek, principal suspects in the 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia, that killed more than 200 people, including 88 Australian holiday-makers.
Kabalu said the US officials also sought the capture of Filipino militant Abdulbasit Usman, blamed for the spate of bombings in Mindanao and linked by Philippine authorities to the terror networks. Usman has a $50,000 bounty on his head.
Kabalu said US Chargé d’ affaires Paul Jones and US Army Col. David Maxwell, commander of the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines, led the group in meeting MILF deputy chief, Ghazali Jaafar.
Kabalu said that since the MILF has signed an accord with the Philippine government, “our forces are helping in the hunt for these criminals...”
“As a matter of fact, the MILF, through the ad-hoc joint action group, provided vital intelligence about terrorists. The MILF is fighting these criminals because we are also affected by their activities,” Kabalu told Arab News by phone from a rebel base in Mindanao.
US Embassy
US Embassy spokesman Matthew Lussenhop the MILF’s help was needed because some of the wanted terrorists were hiding within the MILF’s territories.
“We asked them to help find these wanted people or share some information that could lead to their arrests,” Lussenhop said.
He said wanted posters of several Abu Sayyaf militants and two Indonesian bombers who have taken refuge with them were given to the MILF.
Since February 2002, hundreds of US Special Forces troops had been deployed in the southern Philippines to help train Philippine troops fighting the Abu Sayyaf, a small group of Muslim radicals with ties to Jemaah Islamiyah.
Dulmatin and Patek are being hunted on Jolo Island, about 950 kilometers south of Manila, or 160 kilometers southeast of Zamboanga City.
Usman is said to be hiding in Maguindanao province in central Mindanao, a stronghold of the MILF.
Aside from Jones and Maxwell, the US delegation included Jon Lindborg, mission director of the US Agency for International Development (USAID); Col. Bruce West, the US Embassy’s defense attaché; and Paul Kennedy, a regional security officer.
Mechanism
The Adnkronos International quoted Jaafar as saying: “They want us to help by providing vital information that will lead to the arrest of the two terrorists. I said we could help them because we are also against the two. We are always affected by their activities.”
“They asked also about the whereabouts of Abdul Basit Usman. We told them that he never became a member of our organization ever since,” Jaafar added.
Mohaqher Iqbal, the chief peace negotiator of the MILF, said there was nothing unusual if the group helped in tracking down the militants.
“There’s an established mechanism for the US government to seek our help in the fight against terrorism,” Iqbal told Reuters by telephone from his hideout on Mindanao, the southern mainland.
“We have long been cooperating with the Manila government to catch criminals hiding in our territories through the ad hoc joint action group.” Iqbal said the US Embassy team also asked the MILF to help facilitate humanitarian and civil affairs activities planned in some communities near MILF areas during joint US-Philippine military exercises planned in the next two weeks.
“They briefed us on the activities in the south, including the war on terrorism and we updated them on the peace process,” said Iqbal, who also sits in the MILF eight-member Jihad Council.
Regarding the peace talks, Jaafar said the US officials reiterated their government's concern for the current problems encountered.
The MILF has renounced any link with terrorist organizations in 2003 when its late leader, Salamat Hashim, asked Washington to get involved in the peace talks with Manila.
Manila began peace negotiations with the MILF in 2001, but no major accord has been signed by both sides, except for a cease-fire agreement. Many rebels are slowly losing their patience on the five-year old peace talks.
Peace talks ended in September last year in Malaysia with both sides failing to sign any agreement on the most contentious issue — ancestral domain — which refers to the MILF demand for territory that will constitute a Muslim homeland. (With input from Reuters)
