Philippines' MILF linked to JI, says ICG study

Philippines' MILF linked to JI, says ICG study

Jerry Norton, Reuters, Jakarta

The main Moro rebel group in the Philippines has close ties to the al Qaeda-linked Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) group, despite denials, a study released on Tuesday says.

Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels have been fighting for an Islamic state on Mindanao island in predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines for the past three decades, but its leaders deny allegations they shelter foreign Islamic militants.

They have even offered to join forces with the government to capture JI members as part of a peace process brokered by Malaysia.

But the respected International Crisis Group (ICG) says in a lengthy study that "all evidence points to ongoing operational and training links" between the two groups.

"What is unclear is whether top leaders are aware of the activity and unwilling to admit it," the study says.

JI is believed to be the Southeast Asian arm of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and is suspected of being behind several attacks, including nightclub bomb blasts on Indonesia's Bali island in 2002 that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.

Police and intelligence officials say JI, which wants to establish an Islamic state across much of Southeast Asia, has planned or carried out other attacks in the region.

Members have been arrested in the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

"It is clear that JI members have worked out arrangements with individual MILF commanders," said Singapore-based ICG Southeast Asia project director Sidney Jones in a statement accompanying the report.

Those can involve training, logistical support or joint operations, said Jones, a noted expert on terrorism and Jamaah Islamiyah, who lived in Indonesia for decades before her expulsion after some officials criticized some ICG reports.

Training camps for JI operatives have run under MILF protection in Mindanao, feeding their graduates back into JI work in their home countries or sometimes in the Philippines itself, says the report of the ICG, which is headquartered in Brussels.

An MILF spokesman was not immediately available to comment on the ICG report.

"As well as replenishing JI ranks in Indonesia depleted by post-Bali arrests, some of these graduates have carried out terror attacks in the Philippines," it said.

Before he was captured in Malaysia, an Indonesian graduate of the camps, Zulkifli, oversaw bombings in Davao in March and April of last year "which killed 38 and remain a major obstacle in the peace talks," the report says.

"If the government moves directly against suspected terrorists operating out of MILF-controlled territory, it risks an escalation of violence and a breakdown of talks," ICG's Asia program director Bob Templer said.

An alternative would be to try to implement an agreement by both sides to cooperate against criminals in MILF areas, while the government steps up efforts for a workable autonomy package, the ICG says.

A truce has largely halted fighting between the Philippine army and MILF rebels for the past year, while neighboring Malaysia tries to arrange peace talks.