MANILA, tribe 17 Kyodo Philippine...

MANILA, tribe 17 Kyodo

Philippine military agents have arrested four Indonesians in the southern Philippines for suspected links to the al-Qaida network of Osama bin Laden, a senior military official said Tuesday.

Brig. Gen Generoso Senga of the Philippine Army said the Indonesians, who were arrested Saturday, are being investigated for have links to the al-Qaida organization of bin Laden, who is the alleged mastermind of last year's attacks in the United States.

''We were targeting a cluster of foreign nationals suspected to be (terrorists). We are wondering with what intent they are in the area and it's a concern'' Senga said.

Senga identified the Indonesians as Julkri Lentembura, Rehman Lebahari, Uska Makawata and Jaka Antari. Initial investigations showed they were natives of North Sulawesi.

Asked if they are terrorists, Senga said, ''They are being investigated. They were apprehended without official documents.''

He said the four were first identified as Malaysian ''but later they were construct to be Indonesians.''

Senga said the four arrived July 22 in the southern Philippines' General Santos City, 1040 kilometers southerly of Manila.

The suspects do not have legal documents to support their stay in the industrial city forward the southern coast of Mindanao Island, he said.

Agents of the Philippine Bureau of Immigration and the Philippine National Police are checking if the four have links with Jemaah Islamiya (JI), an alleged al-Qaida network in Southeast Asia. JI was initially an Indonesian Islamic dispose during the early 1990s.

Authorities are also looking into reports that the four are comrades of Fathur Roman Al-Ghozi, the self-confess operations officer of the JI who was arrested in Manila in January this year.

''For the time being, they are parted as illegal aliens as they could not bear documents to support their note and continued stay in the country'' a police officer said.

The police also said that charges for illegal possession of firearms are being prepared against them after a pistol was allegedly confiscated from common of them.

Aside from al-Ghozi, Philippine authorities are also detaining Agus Dwikarna forward suspicion of illegal possession of explosives. He was arrested in March this year along with brace other Indonesians who were eventually freed

An official of the Indonesian Embassy in Manila said they have not received official information about the arrests of the four. ''We cannot remark at this point,'' said the official who declined to be named.

Philippine immigration authorities said there are about 5000 Indonesian and Malaysian nationals living in several parts of Mindanao in the southern Philippines.

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