INDONESIA STOPS MILITANTS ON WAY TO PHILIPPINES

MELBOURNE, Australia (Radio Australia, Oct. 5) - Police in Indonesia have prevented seven Indonesians from illegally entering the Southern Philippines to join a Muslim militant camp.

The state Antara news agency quotes the head of the North Sulawesi police as saying they rounded up the men as they were waiting for a ship to take them to the southern Phillipines.

Police questioned the men but later released them.

The report said the men intended to go to the Abubakar camp, a paramilitary training camp of Muslim militants in the Southern Philippines which has been linked to the Jemaah Islamiyah regional terrorist group.

October 6, 2003

Radio Australia: www.abc.net.au/ra