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| Southeast Asia | ||
| Filippino government, MILF tap dance around JI issue | ||
| 2004-02-08 | ||
The ceasefire committees of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have included in the agenda in todayâs joint meeting, the reported Jemaah Islamiyah training activities in Mindanao but mainly because they want to jointly come up with âcategorical answersâ on the âperplexing questionsâ repeatedly raised by the foreign press. Lt. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia, the Armed Forces vice chief of staff and chair of the governmentâs Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH), noted that the news of JI training in MILF-held areas mostly came from the foreign press. âI donât know where the foreign media is getting these reports,â he told a press conference during a break in the 15th Joint CCCH meeting at the Tower Inn today.
Garcia noted that the latest of the string of foreign media reports on the JI is that 15 trainees recently graduated from training sites in Maguindanao province. âIt is in this ceasefire committee that matters like this (reported graduation of 15 JI trainees) are also taken up to be able to get from our MILF counterparts assurances or actions that have been done, confirmatory or not, as they continue to come,â Garcia said. Previous CCCH meetings have also tabled the JI issue and that members of the joint committees have initiated fact finding missions, along with some members of civil society groups, to verify these reports, Garcia said. Benjie Midtimbang, MILF CCCH chair, said allegations linking the MILF to the JI which had been linked to the series of bombing operations in Mindanao, Metro Manila and other parts of Southeast Asia, have come mainly from different media organizations. He said the matter has also been tabled by the CCCH in its past meetings based on media reports and that they had agreed to jointly conduct investigations in areas where the JI trainings were reportedly done in consonance with the MILF policy of helping the government solve the series of bombings in Mindanao and even in the neighboring countries. He said members of the joint CCCH visited last December, Cararao, a mountain in the borders of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, where JI recruits have reportedly trained. âI am proud to inform you, brother, that no one was found as a member of the Jemaah Islamiyahâ he said.
âWe are not criminal people, we are Muslims who always want to protect lives and properties be he a Christian or a Muslim. It is not within the vocabulary of the MILF to have links with these groups,â he said. Midtimbang said they have made assurances to their counterparts in the government CCCH that they will not allow criminal or suspected terrorists to use any part of the areas held by the MILF. | ||
| Posted by:Dan Darling |