EDITORIAL — Al-Qaeda and the MILF

The intelligence reports are coming from Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries, and from terrorist suspects now detained in the United States. The reports have a similar theme: the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front provided training facilities and a haven for Islamist terrorists in Mindanao in the previous decade.

According to several reports citing intelligence sources, the foreign terrorists were not run-of-the-mill types more interested in money-making banditry, but dedicated fighters believed to be part of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network. Bin Laden himself reportedly asked MILF chieftain Hashim Salamat to set up training camps in the Philippines for al-Qaeda operatives who were having a hard time entering Afghanistan after the terrorist bombings in Africa in 1998.

The MILF immediately denied the reports, which is understandable. Rebel groups have seen what has happened to exiled communist leader Jose Ma. Sison after the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army were tagged by the United States as terrorist organizations. President Arroyo’s adviser for special concerns, Norberto Gonzales, also denied the reports. This was also expected since Gonzales has made the government bend over so far backwards it is about to keel over in its desperation to strike a peace agreement with the MILF.

It would be foolish for the government, however, to dismiss the reports. Al-Qaeda operatives have been on the run since the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan. It is only logical that the terrorists would look for a new base of operations. And it is not farfetched to imagine that they would consider Southeast Asia, which is home to a big Muslim population, with a significant number supporting a militant, extremist form of Islam.

The brains of the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 lived in Manila. It is widely known that the founding members of the Abu Sayyaf trained in Afghanistan during the war to evict Soviet occupation forces — a war in which Bin Laden participated. It is also widely known that for several years Bin Laden’s brother-in-law lived in Mindanao, running what was supposed to be an organization for charity and development aid. The brother-in-law disappeared shortly after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 last year in the United States.

Peace is of course preferable to war, and Filipinos generally support peace initiatives with rebel groups. Before any peace agreement can be forged, however, the government must be sure of the sincerity of any rebel group. Filipinos have died in terror attacks attributed to foreigners affiliated with al-Qaeda: 19 were killed in the bombing of the Light Rail Transit in Manila, and 15 in the explosion at the Fit Mart shopping mall in General Santos City. The government must make sure the MILF comes clean regarding its links to Islamist terrorists.