Manila (Fides Service) - The conflict in Iraq could radicalise separatists in Southern Philippines, said Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, of Cotabato in Mindanao, also president of the Philippine Bishops' Conference.
The Archbishop said that recent episodes of violence reported in various parts of Mindanao point to a possible radicalisation of members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front MILF, particularly Muslims who may decide to join or even start terrorists groups. Archbishop Quevedo says these radicalised elements now have more in common with the Abu Sayyaf extremists' position of separatism "by any means".
Bomb attacks in Mindanao, in March and early April, while the US led coalition was fighting the war in Iraq, killed at least 38 people and injured some 200. One of the victims was Sister Dulce de Guzman a Franciscan of Mary Immaculate. "What is frightening - the Archbishop said - is that terrorism strikes civilians and this threatens any possibility of peace talks".
In 2001, the MILF signed a cease fire agreement with the government, agreeing on partial autonomy from Manila and giving up the idea of secession. Following the 11 September terrorist attack in New York, the war in Afghanistan and then in Iraq, many members of the MILF seemed to have returned to former extremists positions and to have taken the path of terrorism rejecting the presence of US military advisers in Southern Philippines, called in to train Philippine army troops.
The Archbishop remarked on the fact that the April attacks damaged also mosques: "the bombing of sacred places like mosques is meant to inflame religious sentiments and biases and aims to inject a religious dimension into a conflict that is primarily political and economic".
He said that Christian and Muslim religious leaders and ordinary believers have the delicate task to defuse the time bomb of total war in Southern Philippines. Archbishop Quevedo calls on the local people and government and the central government in Manila to do everything to direct the situation towards "a possible peace". PA (Fides Service 15/4/2003 EM lines 32 Words: 422)