MILF: JI bombers hiding in Mindanao
Muslim guerrillas said Thursday they were helping government troops capture two Indonesians blamed for the deadly 2002 Bali bombings and confirmed that the terror suspects were hiding near their southern strongholds with eight other militants.
The two suspected bombers—Pitono, also known as Dulmatin, and Umar Patek—have been sighted in a mountainous region bordering the southern provinces of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, often with al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf extremists, said Moro Islamic Liberation Front spokesman Eid Kabalu.
Kabalu spoke a day after Deputy National Security Adviser Virtus Gil announced that the pair from the Jemaah Islamiah terror network, which originated from Indonesia, was plotting fresh attacks and attending a training camp in Mindanao.
Gil said the suspects have met with Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khaddafi Janjalani. One of them, Dulmatin, was last seen near Maguindanao a few days ago.
The main Muslim separatist group, the MILF, is conducting peace talks with the government and has pledged to arrest foreign militants in the rebel territory. Their presence has threatened to derail negotiations to end a three-decades-old insurgency.
Kabalu told the Associated Press that the two militants did not appear to be actively involved in plotting attacks against the Philippine government.
He said they frequently roam the hinterlands with about eight other compatriots and may have sought refuge in the southern Mindanao region because of a two-year cease-fire between the MILF and the government.
“They’re here probably to rest and relax because they’re being hunted down in their own homeland in Indonesia and we have this cease-fire agreement in place,” Kabalu said by telephone.
“They’re constantly on the move in small groups. That’s a good strategy because that would make it more difficult to locate them,” he said.
The MILF has been accused of providing sanctuary and training ground to Jemaah Islamiah. Its action to help capture the two suspected bombers is seen as a crucial test for the guerrillas.
The government earlier gave the MILF the names and pictures of 53 suspected terrorists and criminals, including those of Dulmatin and Patek, and asked the rebels to investigate. --AP
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2005/jun/10/yehey/top_stories/20050610top8.html