‘Martyrdom’ poses security nightmare

By JOEY NACALABAN and NITZ ARANCON
Correspondents .

SECURITY experts yesterday sounded alarms bells over the threat of suicide bombings in the wake of the Lamitan attack in Basilan that killed 11 people on Tuesday, pointing out that the government could be dealing with terrorists indoctrinated into thinking that their self-sacrifice is “martyrdom.”

Criminologist Manuel Jaudian said there have been many studies about suicide bomb attacks that often show a religious component of the problem — that is, the perpetrator’s death is the “supreme sacrifice for the greater glory” of a deity.

“In short, it’s religious extremism,” said Dr. Jaudian.

The international terrorist group Isis has owned responsibility for the Lamitan attack and described it as a “martyrdom operation,” reported the Radio Mindanao Network yesterday.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque called the attack a “war crime.”

A former Army general, Councilor Romeo Calizo, said the “extremist doctrine” makes the task of ensuring public safety more difficult on the part of the government, explaining that the police and the military are not just dealing with secessionism.

Calizo said even the way attacks are carried out have changed because of the mindset of extremists.

“Before, the bombing targets were structures or vehicles. They used to plant bombs in crowded areas and detonate these from a distance,” he said. But now, as shown in the Lamitan attack, “the bomber kills himself along with the targets.”

He added: “That’s what makes it really alarming.”

Calizo, the chairman of the city council’s committee on police and public safety, said the Lamitan incident should make authorities seriously think about how to counter extremism and suicide bombings. He spoke of “doctrinal approaches” and “logical approaches” but did not elaborate.

Eleven people, including a foreigner who served as the driver and suicide bomber, were killed while five others were wounded when the car bomb went off at a checkpoint of a military detachment in Magkawit in Lamitan, Basilan, early morning on Tuesday.

“These people (extremists) think differently. If drugs are hurting the minds of addicts, wrong views and false crusades messed up the minds of [extremists],” said lawyer Alex Cabornay, head agent for northern Mindanao of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

Cabornay said the extremists were fanatics and the threat they pose should not be downplayed by the government.

Their fanaticism, he said, makes terrorists “more aggressive and dangerous.”

Cabornay however said he has yet to be fully convinced that suicide bombings would become a norm, saying he doubted there are suicide bombers in the country.

Government broadcaster Rhima Macarambon, a Muslim, called the extremists “munafiqun” (hypocrites), “kufar” (non-believers), and “unfaithful to Islam.”

Macarambon said the killings in Lamitan were a result of wrong religious views.

“They are using Islam for their power greed. They want to rule Mindanao, the country and the whole world,” Macarambon said.

She said the terrorists pose as a big threat to the Islamic world because they are after of world domination, something that “puts Islam in a bad light.”