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QDe.128
RAJAH SOLAIMAN MOVEMENT
Date on which the narrative summary became available on the Committee's website
07 May 2009 - 12:00pm
Date(s) on which the narrative summary was updated
03 February 2015 - 12:00pm
17 April 2018 - 12:00pm
Reason for listing

The Rajah Solaiman Movement was listed on 4 June 2008 pursuant to paragraphs 1 and 12 of resolution 1735 (2006) as being associated with Al-Qaida, Usama bin Laden or the Taliban for “participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing, or perpetrating of acts or activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf of, or in support of”, “recruiting for” and “otherwise supporting acts or activities of” the Abu Sayyaf Group (QDe.001) and Jemaah Islamiyah (QDe.092).

Additional information

The Rajah Solaiman Movement (RSM) was founded in 1995 by Hilarion Del Rosario Santos III a.k.a. Ahmad Islam Santos (QDi.244). Santos is considered to be the emir of the RSM.

RSM recruits have received training, funds, and operational assistance from the Al-Qaida- affiliated Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) (QDe.001) and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) (QDe.092). The RSM, in return, has provided field operatives and a pool of potential recruits, enabling the ASG and JI to expand their reach into urban areas in the Philippines. RSM members have been involved in several plots to bomb high-profile targets in Manila, including public utilities, tourist areas, and the Embassy of the United States of America.

The links between the RSM and the ASG are illustrated by the fact that, at the time of his arrest on 26 October 2005 in Zamboanga city, the Philippines, Hilarion Santos III was also the media bureau chief of the ASG.

The links between the RSM and JI were acknowledged by Hilarion Santos III when he confessed that, in early 2004, he had collaborated with Umar Patek (QDi.294), a JI member. Patek gave the RSM 250,000 Philippine pesos for the foiled “Big Bang” or “Great Ibadah” operation, which was intended to target the Embassy of the United States of America in Manila and business establishments frequented by foreigners, in particular Americans. The money was spent on surveillance of targets and to pay for the rental of an apartment in Quezon City which the RSM used to store explosives. Philippines government security forces raided the apartment on 23 March 2005 and recovered the explosives. When Fathur Rohman al-Ghozhi (deceased), a key operative of JI, escaped from the detention of the Philippine National Police on 14 July 2003, he sought refuge at the residence of an RSM contact in Camarines Sur before proceeding to Butuan City in Mindanao.

Santos also admitted that he had trained potential bombers together with JI as early as February 2002. After their training courses, ASG and RSM members participated in a series of joint bombing attacks and other plots orchestrated on behalf of JI and the ASG in Metro Manila and Mindanao that killed or wounded hundreds of people, such as the Superferry 14 attack (27 February 2004), the G-Liner bombing plot (25 December 2004), the Valentine’s Day bombing (14 February 2005), and nearly simultaneous bombings in Mindanao at a bus terminal in Davao City and at a shopping mall in General Santos City.

Selected RSM members were recruited by JI through the ASG to conduct bomb attacks. In preparation, RSM recruits underwent JI- and ASG-sponsored training, particularly in handling explosives and the manufacture of improvised explosives devices (IED). Consequently, the graduates of these training courses became bombers or provided operational support, such as by acquiring components for IEDs or casing targets.

RSM members underwent training on explosives under JI instructors in Mount Cararao, located on the boundary of Maguindanao and Lanao Del Sur Provinces in the Philippines in 2002, after they had sought refuge inside ASG camps in Mindanao following the raid by the Philippine National Police on their training camp in Anda, Pangasinan. In 2004, JI instructors conducted another training programme for RSM members on demolition and explosives, and firearms familiarization, called “Kital Jihad”, in Camp Jabal Quba, Mount Cararao, Maguindanao, the Philippines.

The RSM has received funding from an orginzation linked to Mohammad Jamal Khalifa, a brother-in-law of Usama bin Laden (deceased), through Khadafi Abubakar Janjalani (deceased), the head of the ASG.