MILF welcomes government probe of its links with terror groups

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is open to a government investigation on its alleged links to Jemaah Islamiyah and other international terrorist groups.

In an interview with The STAR, MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said the Armed Forces has been conducting a "smear campaign" against the secessionist movement to discredit the peace negotiations between the government and the MILF.

"The Army and the police have been accusing us of coddling terrorists and we have strongly denied these allegations," he said.

"We are like a broken record here. To put a stop to this we are opening our doors and we challenge the government to conduct a fair investigation."

Kabalu said a "war scenario" is being created in Lanao del Sur to justify the holding of the joint US-RP Balikatan military exercises in Central Mindanao, particularly the Lanao provinces.

"‘We are just waiting for what is going to happen next," he said. "We don’t really know what the military is up to and why they are putting all our peace efforts and commitment to vain."

Kabalu said a certain Salfullah Yunos, alias Moclis, whom the military said trained MILF and New People’s Army guerrillas on bomb making, is not a member of the MILF.

The MILF is not coddling Abu Sayyaf bandits, particularly Isnilon Hapilon, Kabalu added.

Earlier, intelligence sources said Indonesian Rohman Fathur al-Ghozi, who is jailed here, told police investigators a Kuwaiti terrorist and the commander of the al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan have been trained in an MILF camp in Mindanao.

Al-Ghozi, who has been convicted of illegal possession of firearms, reportedly said that he has trained Filipino Muslims, mostly MILF guerrillas, in bomb-making, weapons handling, surveillance, sabotage, and terrorist cell formation in at least three MILF camps for three years.

Intelligence sources identified these camps as Abubakar in Maguindanao –which fell to government troops in mid-2000 –and Obaida in Sarangani.

During the same period, the alleged Kuwaiti terrorist, identified as Omar a-Faruq, whom US troops arrested in Afghanistan for his role in the bombing of churches in Indonesia on Christmas Eve 2000, was said to have arrived in the country to train saboteurs in Camp Abubakar.

Omar, who is now detained in a US Air Force base in Bagram, Afghanistan, was reportedly accompanied to the Philippines by one Al-Mughiraal Gaz’iri, who is believed to the commander of an al-Qaeda training camp in Khaldan in Afghanistan.

Omar was reportedly sent to Southeast Asia by Abu Zubaydah, who is reportedly a top associate of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, whom the US blames for last year’s Sept. 11 terrorist attack on New York and the Pentagon.

Intelligence sources said the US Central Intelligence Agency has traced to Omar a cellphone number, which al-Ghozie reportedly dialed in his cellphone.

"Al-Ghozie carefully established the cell, opening bank accounts, networking and recruiting," an intelligence source said. "He also learned the local language well enough that he almost passed himself off as a Filipino."

Al-Ghozie was selective in choosing recruits who would go through at least three phases before being sent on important missions, the sources added.