Terrorists secretly trained in SE Asia: RP

Terrorists secretly trained in SE Asia: RP

Agencies, Manila

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said on Monday that
terrorists have secretly trained in Indonesia, Malaysia and the
southern Philippines and that all three are working to prevent
Moro extremists from establishing strongholds.

The Philippine government was specifically working with
Indonesia to be able to intercept Indonesians involved in
terrorism training in isolated areas of Mindanao, the poor
southern region where Filipino Muslim extremists and separatist
guerrillas have a presence, she said.

"For some time now, terrorist networks have been working
across our common seas to establish a radical enclave in parts of
Malaysia and Indonesia and in Mindanao," Arroyo said in a
statement.

"Small, clandestine training activities have shifted among the
three countries as the circumstances would allow and this has
happened in isolated parts of Mindanao," Arroyo said, without
elaborating.

Philippine police intelligence officials say Jamaah Islamiyah
(JI), an al-Qaeda-linked regional militant group blamed for last
year's Bali bombings that killed 202 people, has been weakened by
crackdowns but continues to plot attacks aimed at establishing an
extremist enclave in the region.

Arroyo said U.S. counterterrorism training in the Philippines
and Malaysia's help in brokering peace talks between Manila and
the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the main Muslim guerrilla
group suspected of ties with JI, were helping stop the spread of
terrorism in the region.

The regional fight against terrorists is unrelenting, she
said.

Several Southeast Asian countries have mounted antiterrorism
crackdowns in the last couple of years, arresting dozens of
suspected JI members, to try to shake off perceptions of the
region as a terrorist hotspot that have spooked investors and
tourists.

Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines last year signed an
antiterrorism agreement that called for greater exchange of
intelligence to combat armed militants, joint training exercises
and improved cooperation in search and rescue. Cambodia and
Thailand later joined the accord.

The United States and the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations also signed an antiterrorism cooperation pact last year
in one of the most extensive security arrangements between
Washington and its Asian allies in the aftermath of the Sept. 11
attacks.

In another development, Philippine officials said on Monday
that the chair of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front
(MILF) will serve as one of five rebel negotiators once a date
for peace talks with the Philippine government is set.

Foreign Secretary Blas Ople said the MILF has already
submitted to the justice department their list of negotiators,
which includes the name of Salamat Hashim, the reclusive leader
of the 12,500-strong rebel force.

"They have submitted five names and Salamat is one of them,"
Ople told reporters after meeting with Malaysian ambassador
Mohammad Taufik and government's chief peace negotiator Eduardo
Ermita.

Malaysia, a member of the Organization of Islamic Conference,
has been helping to broker a peace deal with the rebels.

The MILF, however, must first ask permission from a southern
Philippine court to allow Hashim to participate as he is one of
several MILF leaders charged in a series of attacks in southern
Mindanao island early this year, including a March airport
bombing in Davao that left 21 people dead.

Josita Andot, an official of the government peace panel, told
AFP earlier Monday that "no definite" date has been set for the
resumption of talks, although officials hoped to have them begin
in July.