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By Inday Espina-Varona, Johnna Villaviray,
William Depasupil
(Conclusion)
Special Presidential Adviser for Special
Concerns Norberto Gonzales believes peace talks with the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) must contend with Islamic
radicalism. Muslim extremists have made inroads in Southeast Asia
since the early 1980s, and government and rebel leaders are hard
pressed to stave off the challenge from younger, fiercer warriors
with ties to international terrorist networks.
The price of failure: Muslim and Christian
extremist groups holding sway, trade and commerce coming to a
standstill amid a new bloodbath.
The government and its foreign allies believe it
can stem the tide of radicalism, by combining a high-technology
battle for hearts and minds with rough and tumble paramilitary
defense tactics. The United States and France are willing to
underwrite the battle for Muslim youth’s minds.
Long way to go
Gonzales tells The Manila Times he does not see
any final settlement until after the 2004 polls, which he expects
President Macapagal-Arroyo to win.
Were the incumbent Chief Executive a dictator,
she could wave aside criticism from national and local politicians
and vested interests, and cut a deal that would give Muslim
Filipinos “meaningful autonomy.” But Mrs. Macapagal-Arroyo is,
Gonzales concedes, a politician with a broad constituency to serve.
It will take at least another two years, says her special adviser,
to undo the damage wrought by deposed President Estrada’s all-out
war.
Even as politicians pontificate of the merits
and demerits of the current peace process, those with direct stake
in Mindanao’s peace and order situation have their vision on
“fast-forward mode.”
In an interview with The Times, a senior
military strategist paints a gloomy picture of Mindanao’s
immediate future.
Radicalism is the major threat, he concedes.
Even the tough old men of the MILF have increasing difficulty
controlling the movement’s young turks, especially the 30 to
40-something generation that trained in Islamic universities abroad,
and fought mujahideen wars in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Military and police intelligence units have
their eyes trained on the Lanao provinces, where a band of 100 plus
men form the elite, stubbornly independent, MILF special operations
unit.
Young turks
Technically, the dispersed unit is answerable to
the MILF central committee. But analysts have taken to
differentiating the group from the rebel mainstream, giving it a
vague tag — the Southern Philippines Secessionist Group.
It is led by Jannati Mimbantas, the MILF’s
training director and brother of the more moderate former peace
panel chair, Aleem Mimbantas. Among its patrons, MILF sources point
out, is Al Manzour, the little known deputy chief of staff of Murad.
Cops have charged the group of cooperating in
several bombing attacks earlier attributed to the smaller Abu Sayyaf,
as well the December 2000 Light Rail Transit (LRT) bombing that
killed more than 20 people.
Both Mimbantas siblings ran Camp Bushra, the
MILF’s training camp, before its capture in 2000.
Sr. Supt. Rodolfo Mendoza, among the country’s
top experts in terrorism, says it is the Mimbantas group that has
ties to al-Qaida, which is not so much an organization as a network
of like-minded bands.
While the Abu Sayyaf is notorious for its
barbaric acts, it is the MILF, notes Mendoza, that is al-Qaida’s
logical networking partner. It has a big cadre that went trained and
fought in Afghanistan. It has a substantial number of educated but
militant mid-level officers.
The MILF’s young turks were quick learners.
Camp Bushra started out importing trainers from Saudi Arabia,
Pakistan and Afghanistan. By the 1990s, Mendoza says, Islamic groups
were sending their youth to train under the Filipinos.
‘Whollistic’ approach
The military has yet to fully assess the
security implications of the birth of a more radical MILF, but
strategists say they already have a “whollistic” approach to
counter it.
Islamic schools, or madaris, would be used to
douse the fires of fanaticism being inculcated in the minds of the
Muslim youth. This is through the incorporation of the Islamic
teachings into the public education system.
Muslims might resist but the military insists
that there is no other way to go about addressing the roots of
insurgency in the country.
The roots of the Muslim insurgency started as a
struggle to regain the real estate that the first Christian settlers
of Mindanao supposedly grabbed. Over the years, the struggle assumed
a religious air, as Muslims were educated overseas and brought home
the ideas of fanaticism.
“But it’s not too late. The key is to give
Muslims room to allow their culture be assimilated back into
mainstream society,” according to a senior military officer.
US, French aid
The United States and France have agreed to help
fund an ambitious hearts and minds campaign in Mindanao villages.
The government can hardly force students out of
the madaris without fanning widespread revolt. In many areas, the
madaris are virtual welfare centers, where Muslim youth from poor
families are assured of meals. The madaris are well funded by the
worldwide network of Islamic charities, which may or may not be
channels for terrorist monies.
The government aims to set up a “parallel
education system.” This would involve satellite systems beaming
English and Filipino lessons, math and science subjects, and current
events into remote areas of the country.
Village youth can participate in the informal
distance-learning drive after their madaris schooling.
That could work — if the infrastructure
isn’t bombed or razed first.
“We’ve thought of that, too,” admits the
military officer.
The distance education system apparently
coincides with the re-invigoration of “community self defense
corps,” a euphemism for paramilitary forces. The officer says the
local units are better alternatives to the Reserves Officers
Training Course, which lacks continuity.
“They (self defense teams) will guard the
infrastructure in the barangays,” says the officer. The teams will
be supervised by trained military officers and, he adds, may benefit
from some training by US military advisers.
Malacañang has agreed to new Balikatan joint
training exercises and even US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has
hinted that new sites could be found in the central Mindanao
mainland where the MILF, not the Abu Sayyaf, holds sway.
Balik Islam
Gonzales says it is a race against time.
The AFP source and Mendoza agree with him.
Already, intelligence officers are getting headaches trying to deal
with Balik Islam, the movement identified with the recent
“terrorist madaris” raid in Pangasinan.
A confidential intelligence report from another
government agency links Balik Islam to several foreigners believed
to have financed the recruitment and indoctrination of members of a
local terrorist cell linked to the MILF.
Documents obtained by The Times name a Saudi
national and a Jordanian national as financiers of the Rajah
Solaiman Movement (RSM).
The financiers were identified as Humoud
Mohammad Abdulaziz al-Lahem, a Saudi national, and Jordanian Nedha
Falah Awwad Al-Dhalain. The intelligence document claims the two men
funneled funds to the RSM using several layers of fronts and
conduits.
Al-Lahem heads the Islamic Studies, Call and
Guidance (ISCAG), in Dasmariñas, Cavite, while Al-Dhalain heads the
Darul Hijrah Foundation (DHF) and the Islamic Information Center (IIC)
located at Ansa II Bldg., Pasong Tamo, Makati.
Both groups have vehemently denied the
government’s charges, accusing intelligence officers of
insensitivity towards Muslims’ strong belief in propagating
charitable causes.
Other organizations mentioned in the report were
the Fi Sabililla Daw’ah and Medina Foundation Inc. at Bgy. Malong,
Anda, Pangasinan, Al Maarif Educational Center (AMEC) and Islamic
Wisdom Worldwide Mission (IWWM).
Al-Lahem has been in and out of the country
since Feb. 2, 1998, first arriving as a temporary visitor then
latter admitted as permanent resident. He last departed on April 7,
2002 and is apparently abroad.
Al-Dhalain is a holder of temporary resident
visa (TRV) issued July 19, 1995, valid for a year, by virtue of his
alleged married to Fatima Haji Ameer, a Filipina. His visa was
extended until July 1998 and, later, until July 2002. The latter
extension has been discovered fake and there is no record at the
National Statistics Office and the Manila local civil registrar of
Al-Dhalain’s married to Fatima.
Al-Dhalain reportedly left the country on Oct.
27, 2001. However, the intelligence report claims he has reentered
the country using a false passport under an assumed name.
Islam’s draw
Big Muslim communities have spouted nationwide.
Mendoza, who now heads the Pangasinan provincial police office, says
the province alone has 40,000 Muslims. Of these, 6,000 are the
products of Balik Islam. But there is no tracking on a nationwide
basis, Mendoza said.
Though he cautions against smearing the entire
movement as terrorist front, the police officer notes that several
bombing suspects, including the ones involved in last year’s
Zamboanga puericulture center blast, were Muslims of the Balik Islam
variety.
People who call Balik Islam members as
“converts” miss an important point. It is a movement rooted in
the idea of the “rebirth” of Islam. It provides a romantic peg,
by claiming most of Luzon was Muslim before the Spaniards came.
Rajah Solaiman, who fought Miguel Lobos de Legaspi, is a favorite
hero of the group.
What has fueled the swift growth of Balik Islam?
Mendoza candidly admits the magnet is Islamic communities’
readiness to care for their own.
“The concerns stem from poverty,” he notes.
“With funds from generous donors, Muslim communities do a good job
of easing the pangs of hunger, taking care of the sick, in return
for the beneficiaries’ good Islamic behavior.”
Mendoza, among the cops responsible for the
eventual arrest of the first World Trade Center bombing, has spent
decades tracking down local terrorist funding networks.
While the 1995 crackdown led to a temporary
exodus of non-government organizations suspected of being terror
fund conduits, Mendoza says they were back by 1997 and 98.
War weary
It is very much a generational thing, Mendoza
points out. MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu shoots down the slightest
claim of factionalism. But Murad, in an interview from his temporary
base in Malaysia, admits there is a real danger of schism if Muslim
youth do not see any alternative to war.
Gonzales, who angered hawks in government with
the fait acompli of the May 2002 Kuala Lumpur accord, which allows a
homecoming for residents of 48 MILF camps, has been called a
dangerous crackpot, a bleeding heart liberal — even a communist
spy — by his detractors.
But the special adviser has some supporters in
the military and police establishments, who recall how the MILF
split from the MNLF in 1984 because it wanted a stronger Islamic
ideology, as opposed to Nur Misuari’s secular outlook.
MILF chairman Hashim Salamat, Murad, political
deputy Ghadzali Jaafar, and other top brass were trained abroad and
came back with a purer strain of Islam, as did the young turks who
now threaten their leadership.
“Murad and the others who have seen hope in
peace and development strategies are willing to give some
concessions, as long as their people are allowed respect through an
Islamic social order,” notes Mendoza. But the younger ones, he
fears, may want to impose their rigid views on everyone.
Murad has described the MILF’s 48 captured
camps as “models for a society we want to establish for people.”
Even military officials admit majority of the camps were more
communities than fortresses.
Murad has spoken of a system where the
indivisibility of “temporal and spiritual matters” is central.
It is a powerful image and one that fans hopes for autonomy — or
independence — among Filipino Muslims.
Gonzales says the Philippines can heed Murad’s
appeal — or brace for the full might of Islamic radicalism.
The senior military source is even more
pessimistic. He calls this generation of radicals “a lost
cause.”
“They, we will have to fight and let’s hope
we can outfight them and they grow up and get weary,” the officer
says. “But sometimes they grow up and become even more fierce.”
The officer doesn’t even want to think of the
MILF’s young turks, except as targets in anti-terrorist campaigns.
He would rather think of ways to prevent younger men from joining
the radical movement.
The US and Franch funded aid will help, he
notes. “But, really, there is no substitute for Muslims living in
thriving, peaceful, prosperous Islamic communities. If we do not
understand and respect that, we will never have peace.”
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