RP checking on white man who trained rebels
RP checking on white man who trained rebels
MANILA (AFP): The Philippines is looking into intelligence reports that an unidentified white man had trained Moslem terrorists who pillaged a town and killed dozens earlier this month, military chief Arturo Enrile said yesterday.
He also said a joint investigation between the government and the main Moslem insurgent group, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), was needed to verify charges that MNLF commanders took part in the raid on the town despite a cease-fire signed with Manila.
Enrile confirmed there were intelligence reports that "there is a Caucasian involved in the training of Abu Sayyaf," the group blamed for leading the raid on Ipil town on April 4. The town's commercial center was torched and 66 people were killed.
Enrile said officials were uncertain of press reports saying the man in question was an ex-U.S. Marine and were only certain -- judging from a photograph -- that he was Caucasian.
He also said authorities had no evidence that foreigners took part in the raid on Ipil. The government has previously charged that Islamic extremists from Pakistan and the Middle East were giving support to the Abu Sayyaf.
In a related event, Enrile said the MNLF have denied the military's charges that some of their men joined the Abu Sayyaf for the Ipil raid. But he added that police evidence "says otherwise so a joint investigation is in order."
The government met with MNLF representatives in the southern Philippines earlier this week to discuss the reports of MNLF involvement in the raid. MNLF leaders have denied that any of their men were involved.
At the meeting, the government also told the MNLF to submit a list of the areas they control, apparently to make sure Abu Sayyaf raiders do not take refuge with the MNLF.
The MNLF, who led a bloody war for a separate Moslem state in the southern Philippines in the 1970s, signed a cease-fire with the government to negotiate for autonomy last year.
Defense Secretary Renato De Villa has admitted that some MNLF commanders are dissatisfied with the present MNLF leadership and are attracted to Islamic fundamentalism in the Abu Sayyaf, itself an offshoot of the MNLF.
In a related event, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said here yesterday that Foreign Secretary Roberto Romulo has met with the foreign ministers of Bangladesh, Jordan, Oman and the Palestinian territories, to discuss cooperation against international terrorism.
The DFA said in a statement that Romulo held talks with his counterparts of these four Moslem states at the meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in Bandung, Indonesia.
The DFA said the four all agreed with the idea of an international conference to counter international terrorism.
The minister from the Palestinian territories, Farouk Kaddoumi said they would assist the Philippines in dealing with terrorist activities and all four ministers expressed their support for Manila's peace negotiations for the MNLF.