JI-Abu-Rajah Sulaiman links alarm US

WASHINGTON — The US State Department said there is growing cooperation among Islamist terrorist organizations operating in the Philippines — the Abu Sayyaf, Jemaah Islamiyah and the Rajah Sulaiman Movement — and described this as a "major and disturbing trend."

In its annual Country Reports on Terrorism the State Department said the near-simultaneous Valentine’s Day bombings in Manila, Davao City and General Santos City in 2005 involved operatives from all three groups and resulted in eight deaths and 150 wounded.

These bombings also used more technically sophisticated explosive devices, another cause for concern.

The Rajah Sulaiman Movements, composed of Christian converts to Islam, has fewer than 100 members but has the ability to blend in and move freely in Luzon and other urban areas of the Philippines, the report said.

The report covering 2005 said some members of the Indonesian-based Jemaah Islamiyah group have obtained safe haven in Mindanao in areas under the control of the Abu Sayyaf and elements of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

The MILF, which is in peace talks with the Philippine government, denies any ties to Jemaah Islamiyah.

The US report lauded Philippine successes against terrorists in 2005 such as the arrests, convictions and killings of terrorists.

It said the Antiterrorism Task Force (ATTF) arrested, captured, or killed 83 suspected terrorists and coordinated operations that led to the seizure of 600 kilos of ammonium nitrate and other bomb making materials stored in an apartment in Quezon City.

Some progress was also made in tracking, blocking, and seizing terrorist assets, the report said.

But the absence of a law defining terrorist acts, combined with restrictions on gathering of evidence, continues to hinder the building of effective terrorism cases in the Philippines, it added.

This year’s report also included a chapter on terrorist safe havens.

Like enemy leadership, enemy safe havens are a strategic target because they allow the enemy to recruit, organize, plan, train, coalesce, heal, rest and claim turf as a symbol of legitimacy, the report said.

Ambassador Hank Crumpton, the State Department’s Special Coordinator for Counterterrorism said some successes had been achieved against enemy safe haven and cited the situation in the Sulu Sea littoral.

He said the Philippine government with the assistance of the United States now has control of the island of Basilan and increasingly, the island of Sulu, both areas of operation for Jemaah Islamiyah and the Abu Sayyaf.

The report said for the year under review there were 11,111 reported terrorism incidents targeting noncombatants worldwide resulting in 14,600 people killed, 24,700 injured and 34,780 kidnapped.

Previously the State Department said 1,907 people died in 651 "significant" international terrorist attacks in 2004.

Russ Travers, Deputy Director of the National Counterterrorism Center said one reason for the significant increase in the casualties was due to a change in methodology.

The previous methodology did not capture such things as the 2004 passenger ferry bombing in the Philippines by the Abu Sayyaf that killed 132 people because the disaster did not fall under the international terrorism definition, he said.

Another reason for the increase was due to a rise in incidents in Iraq in 2005.

The US report said east Asian countries made progress last year in battling terrorists, but threats remain, particularly in Southeast Asia, where efforts are hampered by weak rule of law and poor security.

The State Department pointed to Southeast Asia as a "major front in the global war on terror," saying a clearer picture of the relationship between al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah and local Islamic extremists has emerged through investigations and testimony in court cases.

Worldwide, Iran was described as the most active state sponsor of terrorism. The report tallied about 11,000 terror attacks in 2005, with about 3,500 of those occurring in Iraq.

The report praised the Indonesian government for demonstrating "a new urgency on counterterrorism," particularly after October’s deadly terrorist bombings on the resort island of Bali, which killed 20 people.

After a three-year manhunt, a November police raid in Indonesia killed Malaysian bomb maker Azahari bin Husin, a suspect in nearly every major terrorist attack in the country over the last five years.

The report noted President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s appointment of a new national police chief to reform anti-corruption and counterterrorism measures. But efforts "remain hampered by weak rule of law, serious internal coordination problems, and systemic corruption that further limits already strained government resources," it said.

The report singled out Laos as a potential safe haven for terrorists, saying the country is complacent about security despite the presence of a small domestic insurgency of about 1,000 to 2,000 people in a remote northern area.

"Lao officials at many levels see terrorism as an issue of only marginal relevance to Laos," the report says. "They believe that Laos, as a small and neutral country, would not be targeted by terrorists."

The report said the country’s border security is weak, and security procedures at airports and border crossings are lax compared to other countries in the region.

The report said there was no evidence of a link between militants in Thailand’s restive south and Jemaah Islamiyah or al-Qaida, but "there is concern, however, that these groups may attempt to capitalize on the increasingly violent situation for their own purposes."

A counterterrorism expert warned last week that Southern Thailand may become a breeding ground for terrorists as Muslim insurgents there shift from a nationalist to a more jihadist orientation.

"Our prediction is Thailand will become like Mindanao in the next five years unless the Thai government takes decisive steps to control and contain the local insurgency," Rohan Gunaratna, head of the Singapore-based International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, told an international counterterrorism conference in Cebu City.

A Thai government official disagreed with the assessment, however, saying that most of Thai Muslim insurgents are not radicals and that the situation "cannot be compared anywhere."

"We believe that the Thai Muslims are peaceful and do not agree with the method of violence," said Somwang Khruasuwan, a counselor at the Thai Foreign Ministry, emphasizing that Thai Muslims "are not comparable to Muslims in the Middle East."

So far there has been no evidence that Thai militants have receiving training in Jemaah Islamiyah camps in Mindanao, Gunaratna said.

Gunaratna insisted that Thailand cannot portray its problem as an isolated case that cannot be "infected and infiltrated" by jihadist groups.

"The situation in southern Thailand is a domestic conflict but were are all concerned with domestic conflict. The situation in Mindanao is a problem of the Filipino people but it is also a problem of countries in the regions," he said. — With AP