Word: mindanao
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Welcome to the next front in the global war against terror. Starting last week U.S. soldiers began arriving in the troubled southern province of Mindanao to hunt shoulder to shoulder with the frustrated Philippine soldiers who have been scouring the area for the past eight months. In theory, the 650 U.S. G.I.s, including 160 special forces, are being sent to teach the local troops better ways to search out and destroy Abu Sayyaf, a group that officials say has had ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. In practice, armed with sophisticated munitions and authorized to fire only...
...gravest terrorism threat may come less from Mindanao than from Manila, thought to be a prime hideaway for undetected al-Qaeda cells scattered throughout Southeast Asia. For several months Manila provided houseroom for Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993. Only last week Philippine police arrested three men suspected of plotting with an al-Qaeda ring recently broken up in Singapore. Sleepers like these, with a taste for anti-American action, trained and financed by al-Qaeda, could be part of a regional terrorism fraternity operating under the banner of Jemaah Islamia, which seeks...
...Sayyaf itself is a tiny radical offshoot of a larger secessionist guerrilla movement. The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) launched its insurgency in the 1970s, pressing for independence for the Muslim population of the southern regions of Mindanao and Palwan, who make up some 5 percent of the population of the predominantly Catholic Philippines. It is not the separatist insurgency that has put the Philippines on the U.S. anti-terrorism radar, but rather the links between Abu Sayyaf and Osama bin Laden's organization...
...wider political context in the southern Philippines may pose problems. The MNLF, of course, is today the ruling party in Basilian, and five other regions that have joined the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao since the peace agreement of 1996. This week's firefight between police and soldiers appears related to a faction fight between rival factions of the MNLF - the imprisoned Misauri had launched his rebellion only after being voted out of office by his own party, and his support-base remains limited...
...present situation, on God's will, his eyes come alive. It's just like the old days at the presidential palace. He saws the table with his hand as he complains about the Philippines losing ground to countries like Vietnam. Vietnam! He lets loose on the latest crisis in Mindanao, and more food is pushed onto plates...