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| Southeast Asia |
| 40 JI members in the Philippines |
| 2004-06-25 |
| MORE than 40 members of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) regional terror network linked to Al-Qaeda are believed to be hiding in the southern Philippines, Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Thursday. Ermita told local journalists that the information came from intelligence assets who had personally guided some of the militants from the trading center of Davao City to the jungles elsewhere in the southern island of Mindanao. "We know they have and continue to operate here in the Philippines," Ermita remarked, referring to the JI, regarded as the Southeast Asian chapter of the Al-Qaeda network. He added that the government was still looking into the alleged flow of funds from Al-Qaeda and local Muslim separatist rebels. "We have reports that local commanders of the (Muslim separatist) Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) continue to allow and as a matter of fact tolerate the stay of Abu Sayyaf members including Jemaah Islamiyah trainers in their camps," in the mountains of Mindanao, Ermita added. Ermita said the government was still pressing the MILF to abide by a commitment not to shelter foreign militants or the Abu Sayyaf, a local Muslim group known mainly for kidnapping foreigners and Christians in the south. He conceded it was difficult to stop the entry of foreign militants like JI members because they could easily mix with the large numbers of Filipinos who travel illegally between Malaysia and the Philippines to find work. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |