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| Southeast Asia |
| Philippines probing Malaysian JI reports |
| 2006-06-02 |
| SECURITY officials are verifying reports that a splinter group of the Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) has been using the southern Philippines as a training ground for terrorists and transit point for arms shipments, according to military spokesmen. "When we receive the report [from Malaysia] through the DFA [Department of Foreign Affairs], we will take the matter seriously," military spokesman Major General Jose Angel Honrado said in a phone interview when asked about the Darul Islam. "As of now, we don't have information on the group," Armed Forces Public Information Office (PIO) Chief Colonel Tristan Kison said in a text message. The military is waiting for a report from its Malaysian counterparts on the Darul Islam, which Kuala Lumpur officials claimed was crippled with the recent arrest of 11 Islamic militants, including two Filipinos, Honrado and Kison said. In a statement Wednesday, Malaysian police chief Bakri Omar said the arrests of six Malaysians, three Indonesians, and two Filipinos in the northern Malaysian province of Sabah effectively paralyzed the Darul Islam. Bakri said the Darul Islam helped two alleged masterminds of the 2002 Bali blasts, Umar Patek and Dulmatin, and five other JI militants slip into the predominantly Muslim southern Philippines between 2003 and early 2006. The group also smuggled three M16 rifles and eight automatic pistols from Mindanao to Sabah for use by Indonesian militants during the same period, Bakri said. While he refused to confirm or deny the alleged presence of the Darul Islam in the country, Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor of the Anti-Terrorism Task Force (ATTF) spokesman doubted the ability of Islamic militants to train in Mindanao. "It's hard to set up training camps or even train while on the run," Blancaflor said in a separate phone interview, stressing that the military has dismantled JI training camps in central Mindanao. Dulmatin and Patek were last spotted in Central Mindanao in late 2005 with Khadaffy Janjalani, the chieftain of the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf. The Darul Islam was borne out of regional rebellions in Indonesia's West Aceh province in 1948 and in South Sulawesi and Aceh provinces in 1953, according to the think-tank International Crisis Group. The rebellion later developed into a movement for the establishment of an Islamic state in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the southern Philippines. Military intelligence said that as of 2005, there were about 500 Abu Sayyaf and 30 JI members in the Philippines. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |