Author:
Publication: Daily Excelsior
Date: August 10, 2000
MANILA, Aug 9: Alleged
international terrorist Osama Bin Laden used an Islamic charity to fund
Muslim extremists holding more than a dozen hostages in southern Philippines,
a former group member was reported saying today.
The Philippine daily
Inquirer quoted a former member of the Muslim extremist Abu Sayyaf group
as saying that Bin Laden and his brother-in-law Mohammad Jamal Khalifa
set up the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) in 1992 as
a front for funding extremist groups.
The Abu Sayyaf member,
identified only as Abu Anzar, said the IIRO worked under the Muslim World
League, an organization supported by the Saudi Arabian Government.
Anzar said the relief
organization, in the guise of giving charity to local Muslim communities,
provided funds to the Abu Sayyaf for acquiring arms.
He also said Bin Laden
and Khalifa funded the "urban warfare and terrorist training in Libya"
of the members of the Abu Sayyaf.
"Whether the money was
used for bombings or kidnappings, Bin Laden and Khalifa did not complain,"
Anzar said.
His statements reinforced
earlier military intelligence reports that Bin Laden was providing aid
to Muslim extremist groups in the Philippines such as the Abu Sayyaf and
the larger Muslim separatist group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
A spokesman for the IIRO
could not be reached for comment.
The Abu Sayyaf seized
21 western and Asian hostages from a Malaysian resort on April 23 and have
been holding them in the Southern Philippine island of Jolo.
Although they have since
freed some of their hostages, they have seized more captives including
local and foreign journalists covering the hostage situation.
Anzar said Bin Laden
would not receive a share of the ransom reportedly being collected for
the released hostages.
The Abu Sayyaf have also
engaged in various kidnapping and bomb attacks against Christians and ethnic
Chinese in the Southern Philippines in the past decade.
Bin Laden, a wealthy
Saudi dissident living in Afghanistan, is wanted by the United States for
masterminding a terrorist attack on two US Embassies in East Africa in
1998 which killed 224 people.
In late May, German television
quoted an Abu Sayyaf leader, Galib Andang as saying his group was receiving
financial support from Bin Laden. (AFP)
