In the Philippine city of Quezon, near the National Assembly building, on November 13, an explosion occurred. His victims were a member of the lower house of Parliament Wahab Akbar and two employees of the Legislative Assembly staff. More than ten people were injured. According to the country's Interior Minister, Ronaldo Puno, Akbar was the main target of the organizers of the explosion.

In the 1990s, Wahab Akbar was a member of the Abu Sayyaf extremist group operating in the southern Philippines and Malaysia. It was established in 1991 by members of the Moro National Liberation Front (Moro is a group of peoples in Southeast Asia. - "NGR"), who do not agree with the policy of the movement's leaders who entered into negotiations with the Philippine authorities. The goal of Abu Sayyaf was to create an Islamic state from parts of Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia, where the Moro people profess Islam live. However, Akbar quickly became disillusioned with the activities of the group, which turned, in fact, into a criminal structure.

Indeed, if you look at the statistics of Abu Sayyaf terrorist attacks, you can see that mostly its militants carry out attacks on civilians and their property (37%), commercial organizations (18%) and the media (10%). Representatives of other religious communities, primarily Christians, are in fourth place (6%). And only after them in the list of targets of Abu Sayyaf are representatives of the authorities (3%), the armed forces (3%) and the police (1%), although they are the main and most powerful opponents of the idea of creating an Islamic state of Moro. This statistic is explained simply: the main source of income for Abu Sayyaf is ransom for hostages and proceeds from racketeering. The main methods of fighting reflect the organization's priorities: kidnappings (46%) and bombings, often used to intimidate or punish civilians who are a source of money (39%). It should be added that Abu Sayyaf is considered one of the most violent and bloody organizations.

After leaving Abu Sayyaf, Wahab Akbar took active steps to make peace between Manila and the Moro National Liberation Front. Peace was concluded in 1996. According to its terms, the Front stopped its armed activities, and the authorities decided to create an autonomous Muslim region of Mindanao, divided into four provinces. The top of the Front was included in the regional leadership. The peace was broken in 2000 , when the Front, in addition to the Abu Sayyaf, formed the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Wahab Akbar himself continued to advocate dialogue with the authorities.

Since its inception, both Abu Sayyaf and the Islamic Front have been international in nature. Their members were trained in Afghanistan and other countries, and made "business trips" to hot spots. At the same time, emissaries from the Middle East came to the region, such as Ramzi Youssef, one of the organizers of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York. In the Philippines, he not only trained members of local organizations in "explosive business", but also tried to organize terrorist attacks himself. He was one of the developers of the so-called Bojinka Plan, the main victim of which was to be Pope John Paul II. During the implementation of this plan, the terrorists had to carry elements of an explosive device on board several aircraft, collect them during the flight and activate them. Fortunately, the plan was revealed. In 1995, Youssef was arrested in Pakistan and extradited to the United States.

Seeing this development as a threat to the interests of the Moro national movement, Wahab Akbar, who by that time had become the governor of Basilan Island, provided full support to the armed forces and police in the fight against Islamist organizations. At the invitation of the government, the US military arrived on the island, which not only trained local security forces, but also participated in combat operations against the Abu Sayyaf and the Front. Gradually, Basilan turned from a nest of Islamists into a relatively stable region controlled by the authorities.

Wahab Akbar played a key role in this transformation, not only as a governor, but also as a former member of the Front and Abu Sayyaf. In a number of cases, he used his connections to free hostages and end the fighting. Akbar was succeeded as governor of Basilan Island by one of his wives, while the other is the mayor of the city of the same name. Akbar himself became a member of parliament and moved to the capital, but even after moving, he continued to influence the situation on the island. However, in addition to his influence, Akbar also retained enemies from among his former colleagues in the fight for the creation of the Islamic state. It was they, according to the Philippine law enforcement agencies, who could have organized the explosion in Quezon.

Using the example of Wahab Akbar, we can trace the transformation that organizations of ethnic and religious minorities in Southeast Asia and their leaders have experienced over the past 15 years. They began by protecting the interests of their communities. However, their overtly criminal activities soon rendered their original slogans meaningless. Once outside the law, organizations lost the ability to legally fight for the rights of the minorities they represented and inevitably split into opponents and supporters of dialogue with the authorities.

At the turn of the century, organizations such as Abu Sayyaf began to actively integrate into international terrorist networks. Wahab Akbar is an example of an ethnic leader who is afraid of such a development, losing control of the situation and political influence in the community. As a result - cooperation with the authorities and organizations leading the fight against terrorism. Another result is a final break with the former comrades-in-arms, for whom revenge on the traitor became a matter of honor.

The split within the local Islamist movement was only in the hands of the Philippine authorities. If earlier they had to make concessions, now all Moro figures who did not cooperate with the authorities could be classified as terrorists to be destroyed. Whereas before the international community could have condemned the authorities for discriminating against ethnic minorities, now it is more likely to approve their actions as a fight against terrorism.

Permanent link to this publication: