Negotiating peace with terrorists (2)

Government is under strong pressure to resume peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. With the military fighting separatists in Mindanao and communist guerrillas in Luzon, its resources are stretched. A US promise of $30 million a year in aid for Muslim communities looks too enticing. President Gloria Arroyo at first demanded that the MILF surrender "embedded terrorists" who killed civilians in Davao City, Siocon, Maigo and Pikit. The MILF never did, but renounced terrorism just the same. Meanwhile, confessed Rizal Day 2000 bomber Saifullah Yunos, better known as Muklis, detailed the MILF’s terror activities. Following is a condensation of his account to the PNP-Intelligence Group:

Back in Mindanao to elude the manhunt for the Dec. 2000 bombers, Muklis came to know the structural permutations of the MILF military hierarchy. He told investigators that the base command, although recently restructured, retained its name Camp Bushra. But military attacks forced the command to relocate at Mt. Kararao, 10 hours by foot from its old site.

Under new leadership, Muklis was appointed by Kokoy Rajamudah to handle the Base Command-2 Training Department. As training chief, he and Rajamudah conducted the Basic Mujahideen Training for batches of 20 recruits at a time. Muklis was forced to leave Base Command-2 in Nov. 2002, after the Ramadan, due to intense military offensives. Edris Yasser recruited him to join Base Command-3.

In the first week of May 2003 he met Egyptian Diah al-Gabri, who at first offered him a chance to settle abroad. Later, however, al-Gabri talked into helping - for a fee - assemble bombs for another sabotage run in Metro Manila. They never got to first base. On May 25 they were arrested at the Cagayan de Oro airport.

Muklis gave police intelligence several valuable insights.

Travelling mujahedin. Intending to enroll in Islamic studies, Muklis travelled to Pakistan in Nov. 1986. He took connecting flights to Bangkok, Karachi and Lahore before finally landing in Islamabad, where Murad Maunda, a classmate from high school, met him at the airport. He used the name Muklis Hadji Yunos in his passport.

Entrance exams at the university were six months away, so Muklis decided to board up with Maunda in a campus dormitory. There, Afghan student Abu Mohammad Murad persuaded him to join other Filipinos in the jihad against the Soviet Union.

With other mujahedin, Muklis travelled by land first to Peshawar, then to the Zadah in Afghanistan. They were divided into two groups, one to join the infantry and the other (including Muklis) to the artillery. The training camp was surrounded by mountains, with ten brick buildings ringing a mosque. It was defended by five elevated guard posts armed with Stinger missiles.

Training lasted three semesters, each of six months. After the first they moved to Kush for practical exercises on artillery. Muklis claimed to have fired mortars of 60, 75, 82, 107 and 122-mm, and the BM Drasda (12 barrels). He also had his first try at improvised explosive devices (IED) – assembled from different blasting materials like dynamite, ammonium nitrate and C4-plastic, detonated manually and electronically.

At the Zadah camp Muklis met Hambali, an Indonesian who would later head Jemaah Islamiyah, who was in infantry training. The man would also later visit the MILF camps in Mindanao.

In 1993 Muklis and wife Samiah went to Mecca for the hajj., his third. He used the name Tayyar Ja’far Maute in his passport.

MILF membership. Although the MILF keeps disowning him, Muklis insists he was a member who enlisted in 1989 after his Afghanistan sortie. He said he wanted to avenge the death of his nephew and several relatives who were caught in the crossfire between Muslim rebels and government troops during the martial law of the ’70s.

He was first assigned to the Internal Security Force of Aleem Abdul Aziz Mimbantas, chairman for internal affairs. Two years and promotions later, he was assigned to the 3rd Field Division-Special Operations Group. He trained recruits in the use of explosives.

Dec. 2000 bombings. Muklis first met Indonesian Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, @Abu Saad, in 1996 at the house of a certain Abdulatif in Marawi. Al-Ghozi was with a Singaporean named Hussin who was planning to set up businesses in Mindanao.

Muklis noted that al-Ghozi often visited Camp Hudiebiah, at the mountain ridge of Camp Abubakar bordering Camp Vietnam. Malaysians, Indonesians and Singaporeans occupied it, Muklis said, although he was barred entry on the one ocassion he went there. Vendors at a nearby market told him of the presence of foreigners there.

The plot to simultaneous bomb Metro Manila installations arose from the all-out military offensive in summer of 2000. MILF higher-ups enjoined special units to divert military concentration away from Camp Abubakar, where MILF chief Hashim Salamat lived.

Muklis claims to have immediately identified the targets: the oil depot in Pandacan using a rocket-propelled grenade, the Manila harbor and international airport using car bombs, and Malacañang using an empty gas tanker filled with ammonium nitrate and sawdust. But fund problems kept him from flying to Manila. Things started moving only in Nov. with the return of al-Ghozi from Pakistan after similar training in Afghanistan. Al-Ghozi visited Muklis at his house in Marawi to reiterate the orders of Salamat and MILF vice chairman for military affairs Ibrahim Al Hajj Murad from Camp Hodiebiah.

Al-Ghozi instructed Muklis to assemble a team to accompany them to Manila, and help procure the explosives and bomb components. He assured him they had money this time around. Muklis was only too happy to agree. (To be continued)

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