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| Southeast Asia |
| JI exporting terrorism from the Philippines |
| 2004-07-06 |
| The United States said on Tuesday it remained deeply concerned about terrorist training camps in the southern Philippines run by militants with links to the Al Qaeda network. US ambassador Francis Ricciardone said the camps on Mindanao island were run by Jemaah Islamiyah, the group blamed for the 2002 bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali and other attacks across Southeast Asia. âWith respect to the Philippines we remain very concerned at the presence of training camps of the Jemaah Islamiyah,â he told the Foreign Correspondents Association in Manila. He said groupâs activities on Mindanao, where Muslim rebels have been fighting an anti-government insurgency for decades, posed a threat not only to the Philippines but to the wider region. âWhen you train someone in Mindanao to device bombs and how to plant them, that becomes a threat and itâs not limited just to the immediate neighborhood where that person was trained,â Ricciardone said. âThey can go throughout the Philippines, throughout Southeast Asia, throughout the world, and murder people. So it is a continuing threat.â The ambassador said JI had been able to set up shop in the southern Philippines because of the weak rule of law in the area. Filipino Defence Secretary Eduardo Ermita says the authorities estimate there were still around 40 Jemaah Islamiyah militants in the Mount Cararao region of central Mindanao. He says most of them are Indonesians who are training local Muslims. Six suspected Filipino JI members were arrested in southern Manila last week after police foiled what they described as a plot to bomb the June 30 inauguration of President Arroyo. Ricciardone said terrorist funds were flowing across borders and he said there was a direct link to the Philippines from the Middle East. âWe know that there are at least ideological links and personal links from here to the Middle East, from Mindanao to the Middle East,â he said. âThere are personal connections, family connections, (they) travel back and forth and they are quite worrisome.â He said local groups drew inspiration, as well as sometimes weaponry and funding, from international terrorist organisations. The US government announced this week that it was sending small numbers of troops to Mindanao to give Filipino troops counter-terrorist training. About 1,000 US special forces troops were deployed in the south in 2002. Ricciardone also expressed disappointment at the failure of the new MILF leadership to resume peace talks with the Philippine government. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |