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Philippines: MNLF denies alliance with Abu Sayyaf
[AA.TR] A one-time rebel group that laid siege to a city in the Philippines south in 2013 to protest the terms of an ongoing grinding of the peace processor has sought to deny it has forged an alliance with an al-Qaeda linked group, despite Abu Sayyaf...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder... murderous Moslems attending one of its regional meetings. Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) front man Absalum Cerveza told radio dzMM in an interview Tuesday that some of the murderous Moslems -- who have also been linked with Daesh [Islamic State] -- were present as the meeting coincided with a "kanduli" (Moro feast) and that they were related to MNLF members. He denied reports that the MNLF had invited the Abu Sayyaf to establish ties. "The Abu Sayyaf members were there... but as to their affiliation, that is not the issue. They are just there for their relatives," Cerveza said. He dismissed allegations that the MNLF were protecting the Abu Sayyaf and its extortion and abduction activities. "There was no security installed to prevent non-MNLF members from entering. Everybody was welcome to come," he added. "We have distanced ourselves from the Abu Sayyaf. We do not like to be attached to their shenanigans. If what they have been doing, that's theirs. We do not have control over them just like the military has no control over them." The MNLF is internationally recognized by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), but some of its factions are opposed to an ongoing grinding of the peace processor between the government and MNLF breakaway group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). In September 2013, a group led by MNLF founding chairman Nur Misuari laid siege to the predominantly Christian city of Zamboanga following the MILF-government peace deal, which he claimed is a betrayal of an 1996 OIC-brokered agreement, has left his organization short-changed, and granted Muslims in the region lesser autonomy. The Abu Sayyaf also broke away from the MNLF, and has carried out bombings, kidnappings, liquidations and extortion since the 1990s in a self-determined fight for an independent Islamic province in the Philippines. Posted by: Fred 2016-01-13 |
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