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'Mainstream' Muslim seperatist group in southern Philippines found to be training child terrorists

'Mainstream' Muslim seperatist group in southern Philippines found to be training child terrorists

Author: Froilan Gallardo
Publication: Associated Press
Date: February 16, 2003

Government troops seized boxes of documents Sunday in the house of a Muslim separatist leader in the southern Philippines, including manuals on assassination, ambush and bombing techniques, military officials said.

Pictures of rifle-clad children being trained as Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas also were found in the house, which allegedly was the command post of MILF chairman Hashim Salamat. The sprawling rebel lair was captured after a weeklong military offensive, the officials said.

"It means they're training terrorists," army Maj. Gen. Generoso Senga told reporters. "They're training even child combatants."

With past police and military intelligence reports linking the MILF to the al-Qaida terrorist network, the military will examine the seized documents for a connection, army spokesman Maj. Julieto Ando said.

The abandoned building and three nearby huts apparently used as Muslim prayer areas were in a heavily fortified compound. It was ringed by deep trenches and concrete fence with barbed wire.

The area is in the so-called Buliok complex that straddles the southern provinces of North Cotabato and Maguindanao, which the military said it captured late last week in a major offensive involving thousands of soldiers.

Armed forces spokesman Col. Essel Soriano said 157 rebels, five soldiers and one government militiaman were killed in the fighting. Rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu claimed only 40 guerrillas were killed, including 35 in a clash Thursday in Sultan Kudarat province, the worst guerrilla loss in recent memory. Military deaths and injuries are now in "the hundreds," Kabalu claimed.

Neither count could be independently confirmed.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, whose administration is working to resume peace talks with the rebels, last week ordered the offensive on Buliok, stressing it was not directed against the MILF but against criminals and outlaws who have allegedly taken refuge in MILF areas - including those from the Pentagon, a notorious kidnap gang on U.S. terrorist lists.

The rebels, who have been waging a bloody separatist war in the country's poor south, deny the claims, saying the offensive is aimed at pressuring them into accepting a peace deal.

Kabalu denied that Salamat maintained a house or command post in Buliok and said the military may have found a Muslim prayer center. The rebel documents were planted by military officials to justify the military assaults, which were actually a violation of a cease-fire agreement, he said.

"This is a psychological, propaganda operation by the military," Kabalu told The Associated Press by telephone. "If we abandon an area, do you think we would leave any delicate documents there?"

He acknowledged many MILF guerrillas abandoned their strongholds in Buliok because of the overwhelming military combat forces.

"We're natives there and we have a mastery of the terrain," he said. "We've just maneuvered out to avoid the tanks and planes, but we're just around running and watching."

Pockets of rebel attacks continued over the weekend near Buliok. Suspected guerrillas attacked a marine outpost with rocket-propelled grenades and mortar shells late Saturday, injuring four soldiers, the military said.

The fighting began Tuesday with a government assault on the Pikit area in North Cotabato province, about 575 miles southeast of Manila. About 51,000 people have fled their homes.
 


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