Dulmatin’s wife says he will never turn himself in

ZAMBOANGA CITY — The detained wife of Asia’s most wanted terrorist yesterday said it is futile to convince her husband to surrender.

It was the first time since her arrest last Oct. 3 that Istiada B.T. Oemar Sovie, alias Amenah Tohe made a public statement about her husband Dulmatin, a top Indonesian terror suspect hiding in Mindanao.

"It is useless to convince my husband to surrender. It is not easy for my husband to surrender. I don’t know what’s on his mind," said Sovie in Javanese during a meeting with Indonesian Consul General Ikon Moch Entjeng at the headquarters of the Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom).

Entjeng made possible Sovie’s appearance to make a public appeal for the Jemaah Islamiyah leader to give up following a lengthy discussion with Westmincom chief Lt. Gen. Eugenio Cedo. Sovie had the Indonesian consulate’s second secretary Bambang Gunawan as her translator.

Sovie did make the appeal, but stressed it would be in vain as her husband has his reasons for not yielding to authorities.

Cedo shared a similar view.

"Nobody, not even his wife, (can) convince the mind of a terrorist," Cedo said. "(But) on the (positive) side we’re trying to negotiate for the capture of the terrorist."

Entjeng said they came as representatives of the Indonesian government to assist in the facilitation of Sovie’s deportation.

Dulmatin is still believed to be hiding along with his ally Umar Patek in the jungles of Sulu under the protection of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group led by Khadaffy Janjalani.

Dulmatin and Umar Patek are suspected of plotting the 2002 nightclub bombings that killed 202 people on Indonesia’s Bali island.

Sovie meanwhile has identified six other Asian militants allegedly on the run with her husband, a police official said Tuesday.

They are four Indonesians, a Singaporean and a Malaysian – all newly trained members of the Southeast Asian al-Qaeda-linked JI, Sovie told police investigators.

Dulmatin’s wife "gave us six other names of foreign nationals who are presently with Umar Patek and Dulmatin in Sulu," said Chief Superintendent Romeo Ricardo, director of the national police intelligence group.

Ricardo did not identify them.

Sovie is set to be deported to Indonesia when authorities finish questioning her, said Immigration Bureau intelligence chief Faisal Hussin.

‘Not without my kids’

With her looming deportation, Sovie also appealed that her four other children go home with her. These kids are at present under the custody of a known sympathizer of Abu Sayyaf in Sulu.

She said she should be with all her six children if she would be deported back to Indonesia.

Sovie was arrested last month in Patikul, Sulu along with her two sons Edar, 6, and Alih, 8.

She said her four other children are believed to be in the hands of certain personalities she befriended while hiding in Sulu.

"But I don’t exactly know where in Sulu," Sovie said, even as she was allowed to write a letter that will be handed over to an emissary in Sulu to locate her children and be brought to Zamboanga City.

Entjeng said they would assist in the deportation of Sovie and her children based on Philippine laws.

Sovie is currently facing charges for violating immigration laws.

During their talk, the Indonesian consul general took time in explaining to Sovie that what her husband did during the Bali bombings was wrong.

"It is not jihad to kill visitors," Entjeng told Sovie.

Sovie disclosed to the Indonesian diplomat that she entered the country via Bongao in Tawi-Tawi, and went to Cotabato in 2003, the period when Dulmatin and Umar Patek along with Janjalani were being pursued by the military in Maguindanao.

She said she later transferred to Sulu, but maintained that she did not meet her husband, noting that they communicated through text messages.

According to Entjeng, Sovie told him that she loves her parents and wants to go home soon with her children.

"She also said in our heart-to-hear talk she could not understand why her husband is doing such things," Entjeng said, adding that Sovie thanked him because they came to protect her as an Indonesian citizen.

"We highly appreciate the military leadership for protecting the safety of Sovie while undergoing the process of the law," Entjeng said.

It was not however clear, Entjeng said, when Sovie will be deported as she is still without four of her other children.

Recruiting bombers

Philippine troops, backed by US soldiers, launched a manhunt for Dulmatin and Patek in August.

Ricardo said the two could not find potential suicide bombers among Filipino militants, prompting Patek to try to look for bombers from Indonesia who would be willing to conduct attacks in the Philippines.

"Based on intelligence reporting around last year... Umar Patek was communicating with his contacts in Indonesia asking (them) to recruit suicide bombers from among the militants in Indonesia," Ricardo said.

He said that four suspected bombers were arrested in June 2005 in Malaysia’s Sabah state, which borders the southern Philippines, and that several others were arrested this year. He did not elaborate.

Aside from the militants in the south, Ricardo said authorities were monitoring the presence near Manila of Christian converts to Islam suspected of plotting bomb attacks.

The Rajah Solaiman Movement members have been moving around Metro Manila and nearby Cavite and Bulacan provinces, but "we have not seen any indications that they are in their advanced stages of their plan to launch an attack," Ricardo said.

Two or three members who have been trained by Jemaah Islamiyah in Mindanao may be plotting simultaneous bombings in densely populated areas, he said.

But Ricardo said the group has been "severely weakened" with about 15-20 militants left. He said it has no central leadership, with some members taking orders from Abu Sayyaf leaders on Jolo. — Roel Pareño, AP