Two JI leaders building base in RP, says report

Two Jemaah Islamiyah leaders have cut their ties with the Indonesian-based terrorist group and established a base in the southern Philippines to wage attacks in both countries, according to a captured Indonesian militant.

The Indonesian militants — Dulmatin, who goes by one name, and Umar Patek — have trained recruits and plotted attacks from their southern Philippine base, but their efforts have been hampered by several arrests and Army offensives, according to a report on the interrogation of Abdullah Sunata, an alleged rebel leader captured in Indonesia in June.

A copy of the confidential report on Sunata’s interrogation in Indonesia was seen by The Associated Press yesterday.

Dulmatin, an electronics specialist known for his bomb-making expertise, and Patek, who has focused on recruitment and training, are key suspects in the 2002 nightclub bombings that killed 202 people in Indonesia’s Bali island. The attacks are blamed on al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah.

In October, Washington announced rewards of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Dulmatin, and up to $1 million for the capture of Patek, citing their alleged role in the 2002 Bali attack and involvement in Jemaah Islamiyah.

But Sunata said the two men told him in 2003 that they had cut their ties with Jemaah Islamiyah amid an intense manhunt for them by Indonesian police "because they believed that their continuous association with that group... would just make it easier for the Indonesian authorities to track them down and arrest or kill them," the report said.

The two fled separately to the southern Philippines and established a base of operations on Mindanao island with the help of a commander of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which has been waging a Muslim separatist insurrection in the region for decades, according to the report.

Patek sought Sunata’s help in sending Indonesian recruits for training and membership in their group in Mindanao, preferring Indonesians who fought in deadly clashes between Muslims and Christians between 1999 and 2001 in the eastern Indonesian provinces of Maluku and central Sulawesi, the report said.

Patek and Dulmatin were involved in those clashes, which killed more than 10,000 people, Sunata said.

Sunata sent 13 Indonesian recruits in five batches for training and membership in the group in Mindanao in 2003 and 2005, the report said.

A Saudi Arabian donor identified as Abu Mohammad sent $11,500 to finance Patek’s Mindanao operations, Sunata said, adding that he had arranged for couriers to deliver the money.

Sunata and Patek regularly communicated by e-mail and mobile phone text messages, discussing "how they could continue the jihad (holy war) in Indonesia and the Philippines," the report said.

Sporadic but intense military and police crackdowns, however, led to the arrests of several members of Patek’s group and forced the militants to move to other Mindanao areas, the report said.

The report did not detail the attacks that were staged or planned by Patek’s group, but said that two weeks before Sunata’s arrest in June, he received an e-mail from Patek informing him of a planned attack on "military installations located along beach fronts." No other details were given.

Philippine authorities believe Dulmatin and Patek are still on the run in the country’s south with al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf rebels. — AP