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Detainees Admit to
Helping Separatists
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The
Associated Press
Tuesday June
18, 2002 |
Detainees Admit to Helping
Separatists
Tue Jun 18, 5:17 PM ET
By SEAN YOONG,
Associated Press Writer
TAIPING, Malaysia (AP) - Suspected Islamic militants detained
for months in Malaysia confessed for the first time Tuesday to
weapons training in Afghanistan ( news
- web
sites) and trying to help Muslim separatists in Southeast
Asia.
Many of their comrades remained at large, they said at the start
of an inquiry by Malaysia's human rights commission into
conditions at the Kamunting prison camp in northern Malaysia,
where suspects are jailed under the Internal Security Act. The act
allows for indefinite detention without trial.
The detainees said they had been well treated and were
innocent, claiming they had never threatened Malaysia's security.
Abdullah Daud, 48, told the panel he was a committed member of
Jemaah Islamiya, a group accused of links to al-Qaida and of
attempting to blow up U.S. targets in Singapore.
But Abdullah, arrested in January, denied the group wanted to
establish an Islamic fundamentalist state across Malaysia,
Indonesia and the largely Muslim southern Philippines.
"For me, the root issue is that we go up together against
the evil people who kill Muslims."
Abdullah, a former university lecturer, said he had made
several trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Later, he underwent
military training with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the
southern Philippines and traveled to the Indonesian island of
Ambon, where he helped Muslims fight Christians.
Also being held at the prison is Yazid Sufaat, a former
Malaysian army captain whom authorities say allowed senior al-Qaida
members, including two men who became hijackers in the Sept. 11
attacks in the United States, to use an apartment he owned near
Kuala Lumpur in January 2000. He didn't testify Tuesday.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, U.S. authorities have been working
closely with officials in heavily-Muslim south Asia where militant
groups are accused of working with, or taking inspiration from
Osama bin Laden ( news
- web
sites) and helping al-Qaida.
Mohamad Zulkifri Mohamad Zakaria, 33, a teacher at a religious
school, said that he was a treasurer of the Malaysian Militant
Group, also called the Malaysian Mujahideen Group, or KMM, in the
northern state of Perak.
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has accused the group of trying
to overthrow his government.
Mohamad Zulkifri said he and several others studied in Pakistan
between 1992 and 1997 and traveled to Afghanistan, where they
trained with firearms. But he denied ever committing violence in
Malaysia.
"My friends and I have never taken part in unhealthy
activities," Mohamad Zulkifri said. "I swear it."
Mat Saleh Said, who was arrested in October, said that members
of the KMM remained at large. "There are many more," he
told the hearing which will continue through the week.
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