The Philippines on Wednesday bristled at its portrayal in the Western press as a haven for international terrorists with links to Osama bin Laden, the main suspect in last week's terror attacks in the United States.
"The image projected by some quarters that the Philippines is a haven for international terrorists, especially those linked to Osama bin Laden, is inaccurate," said President Gloria Arroyo's spokesman, Rigoberto Tiglao.
He conceded that the Saudi dissident had trained local Islamic guerrillas in the 1990s.
Tiglao said intelligence reports indicate that Ramzi Yousef, later convicted in the United States for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, "has trained a group of Abu Sayyaf members in the preparation and use of explosives."
However, "since the first half of 1990 and particularly since the neutralization of Yousef's cell in 1995, there have been no reports nor any intelligence information that international terrorist cells, especially those linked to bin Laden, have been able to use Manila as a base."
Bin Laden in the early 1990s cut off links with the Abu Sayyaf "after assessing that the group was a mercenary one incapable of undertaking global terrorism."
Intelligence reports had indicated that a Muslim foundation called the International Islamic Relief Organization had given funds to the Abu Sayyaf and and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas operating in the south in the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, Tiglao said.
The relief organization was linked to a brother-in-law of bin Laden, although it has not been established whether the money it gave the Filipino groups were used to purchase arms, he said.
In 1995, one of the suspects in the World Trade Center bombing, Abdul Hakim Murad, was arrested in the Philippines and extradited to the US. Murad and Yousef were later convicted for the bombing that left six people dead.
The spokesman said Manila had since heightened surveillance and tighter security measures in Philippine ports of entry.
"The false image of the country as a haven for terrorists has however been bolstered by the existence of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Abu Sayyaf," Tiglao said.
The MILF, which is holding peace talks with Manila, has repeatedly rejected terrorism while the Abu Sayyaf over the years has degenerated into a purely kidnap-for-ransom gang.
Tiglao's statement was issued hours after the immigration bureau said that four of the suspected hijackers who launched the attacks last week apparently visited Manila a number of times previous months -- MANILA (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
