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Former mujahideen tells all
HE COULD have taken the path to violence as did many other mujahideens. But Junie Arances, 42, whose war exploits in Afghanistan could humble showy Abu Sayyaf leaders, chose to be productive, toiling in the fields with his followers, instead of turning to extortion and kidnapping.Arances kept his story for years and it only recently did he agree to share it with the Inquirer: After returning from foreign lands in 1989, Arances became active in local peace-building efforts. When Fidel V. Ramos became president in 1992 and opened peace negotiations with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), he was a close-in staffer of Nur Misuari while working on Malaca€ang approval of a 600-hectare Muslim settlement in Don Carlos town in Bukidnon. The late dictator Ferdinand Marcos had leased the area to the defunct National Development Corp. "With past presidents having settlement programs for Christians in Mindanao, Ramos probably realized it was about time he had, too, for the Muslims, though one not entirely exclusive to them," Arances said. For the hardened fighter who helped oust the Russians in Afghanistan, this was the only way his people could reap the fruits of the 1996 peace agreement between the government and the MNLF. A student of sociology at the Bukidnon State College, Arances was a devout Seventh Day Adventist. While doing research on Islam in 1984, he sought Ustadz Salamat Hashim out of thirst for Islam-related knowledge. He was then 20 years old. The Pinule Library, run by Christian missionaries in Bukidnon, had provided him initial tools in understanding Islam. Arances eventually converted and chose the Muslim name Omar bin Hassan. He stayed in Manila for over a year and waited for the chance to meet Hashim abroad in 1984, but his mission proved futile. He went home to finish his sociology degree. That same year, he returned to Manila. Arances joined the moderate Tableegh Reformist group of Sunni Muslims and was granted a scholarship by the World Assembly of Muslim Youth in 1986. It allowed him to pursue a post-graduate program on Luga (classic Arabic language of the Koran) at the state-run al-Jamiatul Imam Saud (King Saud University) in Riyadh. After a year, he dropped out and was secretly recruited by other foreigners to join a group of "volunteer" Muslims to help mujahideens in Afghanistan fight the Marxist Kabul government. They were flown in a chartered Pakistan Air Lines flight to Lahore and were trained in Kashmir by "foreign mercenaries." Among their trainers and lecturers on combat and firearms handling were US Marine Sgt. Willy Smith, whose name he would not forget, and Jan Mohamad, a Pakistani. Arances was with four other Filipino Muslims during clashes in Kosh, Afghanistan. They stayed there for two weeks in the winter of 1989. They were the only Filipino Moros who share real stories of actual combat in modern times in a battle fought with America against another superpower, the Soviet Union. (He declined to identify his other Filipino companions. Some of them are dead.) At Kosh, they were harassed by an MI-14 Soviet attack helicopter. They dodged the attack until they were able to dig foxholes for cover. They used US-made anti-aircraft (ground-fired) missiles and British Stingers. Unable to withstand the cold winter season there, Arances fell ill and returned to Kashmir with another group of volunteers under Amer Nurudin Khan, an Indian. In Islamabad, Arances again met Smith emerging from Misuari's quarters and they briefly greeted each other. Arances returned to Saudi Arabia to continue his studies. But he was unable to finish Luga until he decided to return to the Philippines in 1989 and get married. He led the formation of the Nagkahiusang Mag-uuma Multi-Purpose Farmers' Cooperative in Don Carlos, composed of Muslims, Christians and members of indigenous communities. Today, Arances and 300 cooperative members have become some sort of a success story. They entered into a memorandum of agreement with Del Monte Pineapple Co. for the firm's new corporate operations. Fresh Fruits, a Middle East group of Arab exporters, provided capital. It is hardwork for members of the cooperative, especially for Arances, to keep the venture profitable. But for the former mujahideen, the fruit of labor is sweeter than the easy money that has lured many into criminality and terrorism. Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-02-12 |
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