EDITORIAL - Partners in terror?

As expected, the leadership of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front denied that the group received recently a shipment of 1,190 rifles. The MILF is preparing for the resumption of peace talks with the government, brokered by Malaysia with the backing of the Organization of Islamic Conference. Being a recipient of guns and ammunition at this time does not speak well of the sincerity of the MILF in pursuing peace.

From the early stages of efforts to forge peace with the MILF, however, there have been doubts about the sincerity of the group. The MILF has been accused of setting up the Pentagon kidnapping gang to raise funds. But any Pentagon member who was caught was quickly disowned by the MILF as a renegade. Later, the MILF was accused of allowing its camps to be used for training militants in the ways of terror. Again the MILF leadership vehemently denied this, until its camps, including Camp Abubakar, were overrun by government forces in 2000.

These days, amid confessions made by terrorists arrested in neighboring countries, the MILF has finally admitted that its camps were used to train members of Jemaah Islamiyah, the group responsible for the deadly bombings in Bali, Indonesia in October 2002 and the Light Rail Transit in Manila in December 2000. But the MILF leadership insists that the training camps were dismantled after the fall of Abubakar.

Now there are persistent reports, with much of the information again supplied by militants arrested in neighboring countries, that JI members continue to use MILF-protected camps in Mindanao to train fresh recruits in bomb-making and other terrorist acti-vities. Even Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani is said to be enjoying the protection of some MILF members. The purported shipment of wea-pons and ammunition is only the latest installment in this story.

It is entirely possible that the MILF leadership is genuinely interested in forging a peace agreement. What is uncertain is the grip of the leadership on MILF members, whose willingness to pursue peace is suspect. If there are more renegades than regular members in the MILF, the leadership can’t speak for the group. And pursuing peace with that kind of leadership can only be a farce.