MANILA,
April 12, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – The Philippine government has
dismissed claims by a top American embassy official in Manila that the
southern Philippine island of Mindanao, inhabited by most of the
country’s Muslims, is turning out to be another Afghanistan and a
“Makkah for terrorism”.
“Such
negative hyperbole to describe the Mindanao situation is out of tune
with what is happening on the ground,” Philippine Press Secretary
Ignacio Bunye reacted angrily Monday, April 11.
He
was responding to a statement made by US chargé d’affaires Joseph
Mussomeli in an interview with SBS-TV Australia April 5, a transcript
of which was released in Manila Monday.
Bunye
said in an official statement that the Southeast Asian state is
already “making gains against terrorism and poverty every single day
and week that passes.”
Afghanistan-like
Mussomeli
said in the interview, a transcript of which was published on the
official embassy website Monday, he is “worried that we’re not
worried enough. I think the real danger here, and the danger that has
been here since the mid-90s, is that we’re not focused enough on the
threat here.”
“It’s
not the sort of threat that should be worried about coming here on a
day-to-day basis. The threat is more long-term: that Mindanao is such
a lawless – certain portions of Mindanao –are so lawless, so
porous the borders that you run the risk of it becoming like an
Afghanistan situation.”
In
the latter part of the interview he said that “what we do find is
that it seems that the [terror] links are stronger, that Mindanao is
almost, forgive the poor religious pun, the new ‘Makkah’ for
terrorism.”
Bunye
hit back citing the United States as an ally in addressing the
concern.
“With
the United States as an ally, we are elevating hopes for a region that
is being transformed from an area of conflict into an area of peace,
development and harmony for Christians, Muslims and Lumads.”
Prelude
 |
|
Mussomeli
claims Mindanao is turning out to be another
Afghanistan
and a “Makkah for terrorism”.
|
Mindanao
Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. also assailed Mussomeli’s statements
and voiced apprehension that this could be a prelude to the United
States’ deployment of combat troops to fight terrorists in that part
of the country.
The
US embassy official’s statement “is exaggerated and too alarmist
as it ignored the gains made by military and police forces in
eliminating the local and foreign terrorists and the progress in the
government-MILF peace negotiations,” Pimentel said in a statement
received by IslamOnline.net.
“It’s
sad that Mussomeli’s prediction that Mindanao could be the next
Afghanistan could escalate the war in Mindanao.”
In
the interview, Mussomeli further said the alleged terrorist group
Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) is ever present on the island of Mindanao.
“There
is training. They are bomb making -- there are experts who have come
here, JI experts, who have trained others how to make bombs.”
He
said the group has “actually conducted various operations like the
Valentine Day bombings,” which was carried out allegedly by Abu
Sayyaf and some members or factions of the Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF).
The
second top US embassy official in Manila said “it is a concern”
that “there are links between certain individuals, certain leaders
of the MILF, certain factions of the MILF and these terrorist
organizations.”
Mussomeli
said his claim is anchored on the admission of “certain JI
operatives [who] have been arrested by the Philippine authorities”
who “have admitted freely that they have these links with the MILF
and with ASG.”
The
US official was apparently making statements for the Manila
government.
He
also took to task some MILF officials for being in denial of the
alleged terror links of some of their members.
“Whether
it’s conscious denial or not, I honestly don’t know. But they
don’t seem to want to accept the reality that some of their
colleagues, friends, leaders are in bed with JI.”
Only
last week, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) warned the
MILF and the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF) to be on guard
against “US attempts to meddle in and force the scuttling of its
scheduled peace talks with the Arroyo government”.
Senator
Pimentel urged Washington to stop making a veiled threat to include
the MILF in its list of foreign terrorist organizations on the ground
that some of its wayward members are in cahoots with JI and Abu Sayyaf
terrorists, and are giving sanctuary to them in rebel areas whenever
they are being pursued by the military.
Read
Also…
US
Urged to Stay Out of Mindanao Peace Process
