MILF denies links with RI terror suspect
MILF denies links with RI terror suspect
Agence France-Presse, Manila
The Philippines' main Moro separatist group on Sunday denied having links with an Indonesian man alleged by security experts to have played a key role in the al-Qaeda terrorist network in Southeast Asia.
Linking the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to Fathur Rahman al-Ghozi "is part of a grand design to have us labeled as terrorists," rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu told AFP.
Al-Ghozi was arrested by Philippine authorities in January, leading to the recovery of a cache of explosives hidden in the south and apparently to be used in bombing attacks in other Southeast Asian countries.
Police and military intelligence say al-Ghozi is a key member of the Jemaah Islamiyah, a militant group in the region with alleged ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network.
Prosecutors have said that al-Ghozi has also admitted to plotting deadly bombing attacks with the MILF in Manila in December 2000 which killed more than a dozen people.
But rebel spokesman Kabalu on Sunday said that the MILF leader Hashim Salamat "is a moderate man" who will not sanction attacks against civilian targets.
He accused certain personalities in the government of President Gloria Arroyo and within the military establishment of creating a scenario to scuttle peace negotiations and justify resuming offensives against the MILF.
"We do not have links with the Jemaah Islamiyah nor with the al-Qaeda, but we cannot speak for other groups in the southern Philippines like the Abu Sayyaf," Kabalu said, referring to the kidnap gang now the subject of a joint U.S.-Philippine military operations in southern Basilan island.
Meanwhile, the al-Qaeda terror network of Osama bin laden is being linked to a bloody destabilization campaign in the Philippines, which may be part of its plot to seize power in Southeast Asia, officials said.
Philippine immigration chief Andrea Domingo told AFP that at least two senior regional al-Qaeda network leaders visited the country with al-Ghozi ahead of a series of deadly bombings in Manila more than a year ago.
She identified the leaders as Faiz Abu Bakar Bafanaa, now detained in Singapore with a dozen others for allegedly plotting to bomb key installations in the city state, and Reduan Hishammuddin -- better known as Hambali -- an Indonesian preacher and a Malaysian permanent resident now at large.
They allegedly funded the Manila bomb attacks on Dec. 30, 2000 which killed at least 14 people and injured about 100 others at the height of a popular military-backed campaign to oust then president Joseph Estrada.
"Based on our records, on December 1, 2000, the two leaders were in Manila and they left on December 6 -- going to Kota Kinabalu (capital of Malaysia's Sabah state)," Domingo said.
Accompanying them was al-Ghozi, who was arrested here in January and has confessed to playing a key role in the bomb attacks.