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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
1995 APRIL: PATTERNS OF GLOBAL TERRORISM, 1994
Department of State Publication 10239
Office of the Secretary
Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Philip C. Wilcox, Jr.
ASIAN OVERVIEW
CONTENTS
Ethnic tensions continued to pose serious terrorism concerns in South
Asia in 1994. The Sri Lankan separatist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE) is widely believed to have been behind an October suicide
bombing attack that killed a leading presidential candidate and 56 other
people. Pakistan continued to provide support to some of the insurgents
fighting in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Targeting of foreigners by
Kashmiri militants resulted in several high-profile kidnappings in 1994,
including the abduction of British and American hostages in October and
the abduction of British hikers near Srinigar, Kashmir, in June.
Pakistan continued to claim that India supported separatists in Sindh
Province.
Instability in Afghanistan occasionally spilled over into Pakistan.
Afghan mujahedin kidnapped 81 Pakistanis on a schoolbus in Peshawar in
February. Pakistani soldiers stormed the bus and killed the three Afghan
gunmen. More than 20 camps in Afghanistan that once trained mujahedin to
fight the Soviets are now being used to train militant Arabs, Kashmiris,
Tajiks, and Muslims for new areas of conflict. Several hundred veterans
of the Afghan war have been implicated in the violence that has wracked
Algeria and Egypt during the last several years. Many of the supporters
of the blind Egyptian cleric Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman, several of whom
were convicted of the bombing of the World Trade Center, fought with or
actively supported the Afghan mujahedin.
There were no attacks against US facilities in the Philippines in 1994.
Muslim extremist guerrillas -- probably from the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) --
kidnapped an American priest in July. He was rescued by Philippine
Marines and members of another Muslim group. On 11 December a Philippine
Airlines 747 en route from Manila to Tokyo was bombed, killing one
person and injuring at least 10. Khmer Rouge insurgents posed a growing
threat to travelers in Cambodia. Over the course of the year, the group
kidnapped and killed at least six Westerners. An American was freed in
May after one and one-half months in captivity. In Thailand, in March,
police discovered a truck loaded with explosives in downtown Bangkok
near the Israeli Embassy, which was probably the target of an attack
that was aborted when the truck became involved in an accident, causing
the driver to flee. One Iranian has been put on trial in the incident.
Afghanistan, which lacks a functioning government, remains a training
ground for Islamic militants committed to overthrowing regimes that
maintain strong ties to Western governments. More than 20 camps in
Afghanistan that once trained mujahedin to fight the Soviets are now
being used to train militant Arabs, Kashmiris, Tajiks, and others for
new areas of conflict. Most of these facilities -- located south and east
of Kabul -- are overseen by the nominal Afghan Prime Minister, Gulbuddin
Hikmatyar, or by one of his domestic rivals -- Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, the
leader of a small militant Afghan Wahhabi party, who is backed by
several affluent foreign benefactors. Training in these camps focuses on
tactics and techniques for conducting terrorist and insurgent
operations, such as instruction on the use of sophisticated weapons,
improvised explosives, boobytraps, and timing devices for bombs. The
camps allow militants from throughout the world to train together, meet
with new benefactors, and help foster relationships between otherwise
disparate extremist groups.
Although only a few thousand veterans of the Afghan Jihad, along with a
few hundred newly trained militants, are actively engaged in insurgent
or terrorist activity worldwide, they are often responsible for raising
the level of sophistication and destructiveness of extremist operations.
Several hundred veterans of the Afghan war have been implicated in the
violence that has wracked Algeria and Egypt during the last several
years. Two of the leading Algerian extremists, Kamreddine Kherbane and
Boudjemma Bounoua, participated in the Afghan Jihad. Many of the
supporters of the blind Egyptian cleric, Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman,
several of whom were convicted of the bombing of the World Trade Center,
fought with or actively supported the Afghan mujahedin. Many Islamists
active in Egypt's two most violent extremist groups -- al-Gama'a al-
Islamiyya and al-Jihad -- received training in Afghanistan.
The current Afghan regime -- deeply embroiled in its own struggle for
survival -- has been unable to control or eliminate the training of
extremists on its territory or terrorist use of the camps as safehavens.
Some local Afghan leaders have taken some steps against the militants,
but their efforts are limited by bickering, greed, and the militants'
military and financial strength.
Diminished by defections and a declining support base, the Khmer Rouge
increasingly turned toward banditry and terror in 1994. Khmer Rouge
radio commentaries on several occasions threatened physical harm to
Americans and other foreign nationals living in Cambodia. Travelers in
some areas outside Phnom Penh, particularly remote rural districts,
faced security threats from the Khmer Rouge and from bandits. An
American was taken hostage and held by Khmer Rouge elements for one and
one-half months but was eventually released unharmed. Many other
civilians, however, were killed by the Khmer Rouge in 1994. The victims
were mainly ordinary Cambodian villagers, but foreigners, including
Thais, Vietnamese, and six Western tourists (three from Britain, two
from Australia, and one from France), were killed by the Khmer Rouge in
1994.
India continues to face significant security problems as a result of
insurgencies in Kashmir and the northeast. Targeting of foreigners by
Kashmiri militants resulted in several high-profile kidnappings in 1994,
including the abduction of British and American hostages in October and
the abduction of British hikers near Srinagar, Kashmir, in June. There
are credible reports of support by the Government of Pakistan for
Kashmiri militants. The Government of India has been largely successful
in controlling the Sikh separatist movement in Punjab State, and Sikh
militants now only rarely stage attacks in India.
The Indian Government proceeded with the investigation and trial of
suspects in the series of blasts that struck Bombay on 12 March 1993. On
5 August 1994, the government arrested a key suspect in the case, Yaqub
Memon. The Memon family allegedly perpetrated the Bombay attack. The
Government of India has claimed that Memon was carrying documents that
incriminated Pakistan.
Pakistan continues to experience occasional violence as a result of
instability in Afghanistan. Much of this violence occurs in Pakistan's
northwest border region. On 20 February, Afghan mujahedin kidnapped 81
Pakistanis on a schoolbus in Peshawar. The hijackers ordered the
busdriver to proceed to Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's residence in
Islamabad. Following extensive negotiations, Pakistani soldiers stormed
the bus and killed the three Afghan gunmen. Some regions of Pakistan
also suffer from heavy sectarian, political, and criminal violence,
particularly Sindh Province and its capital, Karachi, and the Pakistani
tribal area bordering Afghanistan.
Pakistan recognizes the problems posed by Afghan mujahedin and
sympathetic Arabs in the Pakistani regions that border Afghanistan. In
1994, Islamabad refused to extend the visas of many Arabs who had fought
in the Afghan war and who had taken refuge in Pakistan's tribal areas
and the North West Frontier Province. Pakistan also closed several
nongovernmental organizations it suspected were being used as cover
agencies for Islamic militants from the Middle East. Pakistan concluded
an extradition treaty with Egypt in late 1994 with the express purpose
of extraditing "Arab mujahedin" operating in Peshawar.
The Government of Pakistan acknowledges that it continues to give moral,
political, and diplomatic support to Kashmiri militants but denies
allegations of other assistance. There were credible reports in 1994,
however, of official Pakistani support to Kashmiri militants. Some
support came from private organizations such as the Jamaat-i-Islami,
Pakistan's largest Islamic party. Pakistan condemned the kidnappings in
June and October 1994 of foreign tourists by Kashmiri militants in
India. Pakistan has claimed that India provides support for separatists
in Sindh Province.
There were no attacks against official US facilities in the Philippines
in 1994, but Muslim extremist guerrillas -- probably from the Abu Sayyaf
Group (ASG) -- kidnapped an American priest, Clarence William Bertelsman,
on 31 July. He was held for several hours before being rescued by
Philippine Marines and members of the largest Muslim separatist group,
the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). On 11 December a Philippine
Airlines 747 en route from Manila to Tokyo was bombed, killing one
person and injuring at least 10 others, mostly Japanese citizens. The
Philippine Government has been trying to reach a negotiated settlement
to both Communist and Muslim insurgencies and currently observes a
cease-fire with the MNLF as talks continue.
The separatist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) continued
to plague the government in 1994, with insurgency and terrorism directed
against senior Sri Lankan political and military leaders in the
countryside and in Colombo as well. Despite the beginning of peace
negotiations between the government and the LTTE, the Tigers continued
to pose a significant terrorist threat. The Tigers are widely believed
to be behind an October suicide bombing attack that killed a leading
presidential candidate and 56 other people.
The LTTE has refrained from targeting Western tourists out of fear that
foreign governments would crack down on Tamil expatriates involved in
fundraising activities abroad. However, in April 1994 the Ellalan Force,
an LTTE front group, claimed credit for bombing several major tourist
hotels in Colombo. The blasts, which caused only minor damage and two
injuries, probably were intended to damage Colombo's tourist industry
rather than to harm Westerners. The Ellalan Force also claimed in August
to have poisoned tea -- Sri Lanka's primary export -- with arsenic, although
none was ever found. Threatening Sri Lanka's two leading economic
activities demonstrates the Tigers' interest in economic terrorism. The
Tigers possess the infrastructure to make good on most of their recent
threats should the current peace talks with the government fail.
Thai police discovered a truck loaded with an ammonium nitrate mixture
and about 6 pounds of plastic explosives in downtown Bangkok on 17
March. The driver abandoned the truck after hitting another vehicle near
the Israeli Embassy, which was probably the intended target. The Thai
Government is prosecuting one Iranian in connection with the attempted
bombing but concluded it does not have enough evidence to charge two
other suspects. In southern Thailand, Muslim separatists, such as the
Pattani United Liberation Front, continued to engage in low-level
violence against the government.
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