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Moro Separatists Deny Training Malaysian Mujahidin
By IOL correspondent in South-east Asia, Kazi Mahmood
JAKARTA, Jan. 27 (IslamOnline) - The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has no information on the nine Malaysian Mujahidin Group (KMM) members who allegedly received training at its camps, its spokesman, Eid Kabalu, said Sunday.
Kabalu said the MILF did not have a policy of admitting foreigners into its training camps, adding that the nine Malaysians could only have disguised themselves as Filipinos to enter the MILF camps and receive training. He told the Malaysian national news agency that the MILF need to know the time frame they were supposedly trained “so that we can check."
Malaysia has said that the 19 of the 23 KMM members arrested so far had received training in Afghanistan and southern Philippines. However, police in Kuala Lumpur said on Thursday that nine KMM members had received training at the Ubaidiah and Abu Bakar camps in Mindanao, which belong to the MILF.
He added that the MILF was clear in its operations and had no links with any of the militant groups targeted by the authorities in the region. He said the numerous MILF camps throughout Mindanao also had their own compounds for new recruits to receive basic military training.
On possible links between the MILF and the KMM and Singapore's Jemaah Islamiyah, Eid said the MILF was transparent in its operations and had no links with the terror groups targeted in the region.
Asked when the next round of negotiations between the MILF and Manila would be held, he said it would probably be in the first quarter of this year and Kuala Lumpur would once again host the talks. Last year, both sides agreed to sign a ceasefire agreement in Kuala Lumpur.
Meanwhile, the MILF warned the Philippines on Saturday that the Balikatan war games in Basilan could lead to the collapse of peace talks between the government and the country’s largest Muslim separatist group.
Al Haj Ghadzali Jaafar, MILF vice chairman for political affairs, and Jannati Mimbantas, director of the MILF training academy in Camp Bushra, Lanao del Sur, told Philippine daily newspaper, The Manila Times in separate interviews that the presence of American troops in Mindanao could spark incidents leading to a breakdown in peace negotiations.
Jaafar said President Arroyo’s stance “proves that she always kowtows to the caprice of the American government. There is a big possibility that if war erupts in Basilan, and especially if it spreads to central Mindanao, our forces may get involved,” Jaafar pointed out.
The war games, he said, would waste the efforts of the MILF and the Arroyo administration to implement a ceasefire and prevent clashes while peace talks continue. “The MILF forces will be forced to fight if U.S. and Philippines troops train their guns on them,” Jaafar warned.
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