PHILIPPINES: Indonesia to help investigate deadly blast

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Att.Editors: The following item is from the Qatar News Agency (QNA)

DAVAO, Philippines, Apr 8 2003 (IPS) - Indonesia vowed full cooperation Tuesday into a probe over reports that five Indonesians were allegedly behind last week’s bombing of a wharf in the southern Philippines that left 16 people dead.

"We are on the same side," said Johannes Manginsela, Indonesian vice-consul in Davao city, where the deadly blast occurred.

– We will cooperate in the investigation," he added.

A Philippine intelligence report has said that five Indonesians, allegedly members of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) group, may be behind the bombing, the second in Davao in about a month.

The Jemaah Islamiyah, reportedly the Asian chapter of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network, was accused by Indonesian authorities of masterminding the deadly blasts in Bali in October which killed more than 200 people.

Manginsela said he was aware of the Manila intelligence report linking the five Indonesians to the bomb blast at Davao city wharf that also injured more than 50 others.

Philippine police intelligence said the five Indonesians carried out the Davao bombings with a so-called "special urban terrorist action group" of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country’s largest Muslim separatist group.

The MILF, a 12,500-strong force that has been waging a rebellion in the south since 1978, was blamed for the Davao airport blast. But the group has rejected the charge by the government.