OMA: Ancient trade routes now used by terrorists

A Muslim government official said yesterday it was likely that the al Qaeda cell based in Southeast Asia has been using the Manado-Davao-General Santos route to shuttle between the Philippines and Indonesia.

Zamzamin Ampatuan, executive director of the Office of Muslim Affairs, made this observation following reports that a key suspect in the Oct. 12 bombing of two nightclubs in Bali, Indonesia that killed close to 200 people had planned to flee to Mindanao using the ancient trading route between the two countries.

Ampatuan said Manado was only about 36 hours travel by ship to General Santos City using the sealane popular among fishermen, traders and smugglers.

"In my view, the Bali bombers have connections in Mindanao. They will always work together in a broad terrorist plan in the Asean region," Ampatuan told The STAR.

"The risk in taking commercial planes would be high so it’s likely that they travel by sea from the Manado area," Ampatuan said.

Philippine authorities said border patrols between Indonesia and Mindanao have been intensified for possible interdiction of fleeing terrorists.

A day after the Bali bombing, the Laskar Jihad, an organization of militant Muslims in Indonesia, was reportedly disbanded, but its over 1,000 members remained to be a potent terrorist force.

"Our suspicions are that some of these Laskar Jihad fighters have already joined up with other regional terrorist cells, and the possibility are high that some of them could be already in Central Mindanao," sources said.

Inspector General Made Mangku Pastika, deputy chief of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Indonesian National Police, said arrested suspect Amrozi has apparently planned to flee to Mindanao.

The plan was uncovered after authorities found two one-way tickets to Manado at the Bali residence of Amrozi with departure set on Nov. 7.

"Amrozi has nothing to do in Manado, so he will go somewhere else in Mindanao," Pastika told reporters in Manila where he is attending a two-day meeting of the World Tourism Organization to tackle anti-terrorism issues.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian police have been able to roughly reconstruct the planning of the Oct. 12 bomb attack in Bali.

"We are now more focused in our investigation because we have now been able to make a rough reconstruction of the bombing’s planning," said Edward Aritonang, spokesman of the Indonesian police.

Pastika said Amrozi has admitted he wanted to kill as many Americans as possible in retaliation for alleged US oppression of Muslims.

He said his agents were tracking down at least five more suspects. Pastika refused to confirm if two brothers of Amrozi identified as Ghufron and Ali Imran were among those being hunted. – Perseus Echeminada, Jaime Laude, AFP report