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Abu Sayyaf becoming a major terrorist group
THE ABU SAYYAF in the Philippines is slowly transforming into a major terrorist group capable of carrying out Bali-type attacks with the help of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), experts said Thursday.The JI's strategy is to "insert" itself in conflict areas and foment sectarian violence and there has been evidence to suggest that the Abu Sayyaf has received some form of training from them, said Zachary Abuza, director of the East Asian studies program at Simmons College in Boston. The Abu Sayyaf, a small Muslim group that operates in several islands in the southern Philippines, gained notoriety in 2000 and 2001 with a series of kidnappings of western tourists, including Americans. Abuza, an acknowledged expert on cross-border terrorism, noted that the Abu Sayyaf's recent bombing attacks appear to have the hallmarks of JI, whose alleged leader Abu Bakar Bashir was convicted Thursday for taking part in a "sinister conspiracy" that led to the Bali bombings in Indonesia that left 202 dead in 2002. "The Abu Sayyaf is back in business and we should be very concerned," Abuza told reporters after a lecture in Manila. At the moment, Abuza said the Abu Sayyaf has the capability of carrying out "relatively small" bombings compared to the attacks elsewhere in the region that were blamed on JI, which has been using car bombs. "Technologically, they haven't quite crossed the threshold that the JI has," Abuza said, but "they certainly are" learning quick. "There is no reason why they can't learn this stuff," he said, noting that bomb-making materials were readily available in the southern Philippines. He noted that Philippine authorities last week arrested two Indonesians and a Malaysian member of JI in connection with a foiled plot to bomb US and local targets. Arrested with them was an Abu Sayyaf member, and police said a 10-man Abu Sayyaf cell was still operating somewhere in Manila. The Abu Sayyaf "re-entered the arena of terrorism," with the ferry bombing, Abuza said. National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales had earlier called the Abu Sayyaf "the most dangerous" Muslim militant group in the Philippines. Even more so than the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country's main Muslim separatist group waging rebellion in the south since 1978, Gonzales said in a briefing paper to the government. Abuza agrees: "Say what you want about the MILF, but it has never engaged in an all-out sectarian (war), it has never made this into a religious war." He said more and more Filipino Christians were also being recruited to join the "Return to Islam" movement spearheaded by the Abu Sayyaf, which authorities believe to number around 400 from a high of over 1,000 members in 2000. The Philippines is a mainly Roman Catholic nation with a large Muslim minority. "That allows the ASG (Abu Sayyaf Group) to expand their reach," Abuza said. Julkipli Wadi, a professor in Islamic studies at the University of the Philippines, said that it was natural for the Abu Sayyaf to seek "linkages" outside of the country. "It is a way to broaden their network and boost their organization," Wadi told Agence France-Presse, but added that the group has a long way to go before it acquires the capabilities of the JI. "To be able to say that they have become a major regional terrorist group is an overstatement in the sense that this could be part of an attempt (by the military) to just prop up a supposedly local bandit group," Wadi said. "Even before this rhetoric on terrorism, there is already the ASG. Except that now, they may have grown big with the alleged presence of the JI," he said. The Abu Sayyaf has been previously called a "spent force" by the Philippines government after a US-backed massive military operation began in 2000 and flushed them out from their southern strongholds. Posted by: Dan Darling 2005-03-04 |
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