MANILA: Philippine
President Rodrigo Duterte said Saturday Abu Sayyaf militants were hungry to establish a caliphate, as he toughens his stance on the kidnap-for-ransom group accused of a deadly bombing in his home city this month.
The fiery leader, who has threatened to eat the militants alive in a bloodthirsty vow of revenge for the attack in Davao that killed 15 people, said the group was no longer just after money from criminal activities.
Several units of the Abu Sayyaf in the strife-torn southern Philippines have pledged allegiance to the Daesh group but analysts have said they are more interested in funding than ideology.
“They are hungry for a fight to establish a caliphate in Southeast Asia. Caliphate is a kingdom for the Muslims,” Duterte said in a speech to soldiers.
“The problem is that they do not talk on the basis of what school you can give them,” he said referring to previous local services the militants have asked for.
“It’s either the caliphate or nothing.”
The Abu Sayyaf is a radical offshoot of a Muslim separatist insurgency in the south of the mainly Catholic Philippines that has claimed more than 120,000 lives since the 1970s.
The Philippine defense department has said there were no formal links between the group and the Daesh which holds vast swathes of Iraq and Syria.
“They are ISIS inspired and not actually ISIS supported. They are just ISIS wannabes,” defense department spokesman Arsenio Andolong told AFP, using another name for the Daesh.
Duterte, who has restarted peace talks with the country’s two major Muslim rebel groups since taking office on June 30, initially pleaded for peace with Abu Sayyaf but has since hardened his position and branded them as terrorists.
Last month, he launched an offensive against the militants, ordering the military to “destroy” them.
He sent thousands of troops to Abu Sayyaf strongholds in the southern islands of Jolo and Basilan in an assault that had killed 15 soldiers and 32 militants according to the military.
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Duterte: Abu Sayyaf ‘hungry’ for caliphate
Duterte: Abu Sayyaf ‘hungry’ for caliphate
ICJ hears gruesome violence against Rohingya in Myanmar genocide case
THE HAGUE: Myanmar soldiers rampaged door-to-door, systematically killing, raping, and burning Rohingya men, women and children, the International Court of Justice heard on Tuesday, on day two of a genocide hearing.
ICJ judges are hearing three weeks of testimony as they weigh accusations by The Gambia that Myanmar committed genocide against the Rohingya in a 2017 crackdown.
Tafadzwa Pasipanodya, a lawyer for The Gambia, laid out harrowing evidence of an alleged attack on a village in northern Rakhine State in Myanmar.
Soldiers decapitated old men, gang raped women and girls, threw infants into rivers.
After killing everyone in the villages, they “systematically” burned the buildings following the so-called “clearance operations,” alleged Pasipanodya.
“The totality of this evidence... convincingly show that Myanmar, through its state organs, acted with the intent to destroy the Rohingya,” said Pasipanodya.
Myanmar has always maintained the crackdown by its armed forces, known as the Tatmadaw, was justified to root out Rohingya insurgents after a series of attacks left a dozen security personnel dead.
The violence forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh.
Today, 1.17 million Rohingya live crammed into dilapidated camps spread over 8,000 acres in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh.
Lawyers for Myanmar will begin their response on Friday.
A final decision could take months or even years, and while the ICJ has no means of enforcing its decisions, a ruling in favor of The Gambia would heap more political pressure on Myanmar.
The Gambia is taking Myanmar to the ICJ, which rules in disputes between states, alleging breaches of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention,under which any state can haul another before the ICJ if it believes genocide is being committed.
Legal experts are watching this case as it could give clues for how the ICJ will handle similar accusations against Israel over its military campaign in Gaza, in a case brought by South Africa.
ICJ judges are hearing three weeks of testimony as they weigh accusations by The Gambia that Myanmar committed genocide against the Rohingya in a 2017 crackdown.
Tafadzwa Pasipanodya, a lawyer for The Gambia, laid out harrowing evidence of an alleged attack on a village in northern Rakhine State in Myanmar.
Soldiers decapitated old men, gang raped women and girls, threw infants into rivers.
After killing everyone in the villages, they “systematically” burned the buildings following the so-called “clearance operations,” alleged Pasipanodya.
“The totality of this evidence... convincingly show that Myanmar, through its state organs, acted with the intent to destroy the Rohingya,” said Pasipanodya.
Myanmar has always maintained the crackdown by its armed forces, known as the Tatmadaw, was justified to root out Rohingya insurgents after a series of attacks left a dozen security personnel dead.
The violence forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh.
Today, 1.17 million Rohingya live crammed into dilapidated camps spread over 8,000 acres in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh.
Lawyers for Myanmar will begin their response on Friday.
A final decision could take months or even years, and while the ICJ has no means of enforcing its decisions, a ruling in favor of The Gambia would heap more political pressure on Myanmar.
The Gambia is taking Myanmar to the ICJ, which rules in disputes between states, alleging breaches of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention,under which any state can haul another before the ICJ if it believes genocide is being committed.
Legal experts are watching this case as it could give clues for how the ICJ will handle similar accusations against Israel over its military campaign in Gaza, in a case brought by South Africa.
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