Word: mindanao
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...According to a source close to the police investigations who has reviewed the bulk of seized JI documents, the organization's own accounting shows that some 3,000 trainees have passed through Mindanao since the mid-1990s. A recent intelligence report prepared by the Philippine military and seen by TIME estimates that 600 JI members are currently in Mindanao, scattered among at least three camps. That figure, contained in a so-called Jemaah Islamiah situationer dated Dec. 8, includes an unspecified number of Filipinos, but the bulk of trainees are believed to be Indonesians, along with some Malaysians. The report...
...once taken refuge in one of the spartan cubicles at the rear of the mosque where the staff sleep. He also rebuts claims made by another bombing suspect during police interrogation that the school was used as a way station by militants traveling to and from the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines for combat training. No, says Nyupeno, he has never heard of Suryadi Mas'ud, currently imprisoned for involvement in several bombings in the south Sulawesi city of Makassar in December 2002. Suryadi told police he spent several years guiding militants from a JI-affiliated group...
...questioned, and the organization's internal documents come to light, some of the veils of secrecy are being stripped away. Recent interrogation and intelligence reports obtained by TIME make it clear that one of JI's best-kept secrets is the ambitious scale of its training camps in Mindanao, which has replaced Afghanistan as the preferred location for learning how to wage terror. Even more alarming: more than a year after Bali, both the camps and the supply routes for recruits appear to be functioning normally...
...Ermita himself has noted, Manila is in a delicate position when it comes to JI. The government is still attempting to negotiate a cease-fire with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), whose 12,000 guerrillas are fighting to gain autonomy for sections of Mindanao. In earlier peace talks, the MILF foreswore any contact with JI, and its leaders say they will help Manila hunt down the group's members if they seek sanctuary within MILF territory...
...Meanwhile, Arroyo and the military must now track down scores of suspected JI terrorists, including Refke's dining chums. Arroyo says the Philippine military already has special teams "pouring into Mindanao for a manhunt that will not relent until all these fugitives are accounted for." The success of that mission will either help free the country of a dangerous scourge?or touch off another turn in the country's endless cycle of violence...