Mindanao's Biggest Boss

Sipping homegrown coffee in the shade of a huge acacia tree in a breezy jungle clearing, Al-Haj Murad Ebrahim wears a neatly pressed safari suit, his PDA and shiny leather briefcase close at hand. Murad, who is in his late 50s, resembles a thriving small-town businessman rather than a guerrilla leader. But there's no doubt about his authority over the 100 uniformed and heavily armed fighters who escorted the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (M.I.L.F.) chairman during an exclusive interview with TIME in Maguindanao province last week, his first since becoming the group's leader a year ago following the death of its founder, Hashim Salamat. Several dozen soldiers stand for nearly an hour with parade-ground stiffness until Murad gives a casual wave and a murmured command. The entire assembly immediately slumps to the ground with relief.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo wants the M.I.L.F. at ease permanently. She has spent the past three-and-a-half years trying to get a peace accord with the group, going so far as to persuade Washington to keep the M.I.L.F. off its list of terrorist organizations. Murad is now the man her government must deal with, and he says he's "hopeful but not too optimistic." He wants the government to adopt "a new formula" that will break the cycle of failed negotiations and mutual distrust between the two sides. A similar peace accord with the oldest Islamic separatist group in the Philippines, the Moro National Liberation Front (M.N.L.F.), was signed in 1996, and that group was given administration of much of Mindanao and a healthy budget. But the M.I.L.F.'s refusal to go along kept peace from the region. Murad claims to have 70,000 armed fighters across the island (although independent analysts think the number is closer to 12,000.)

The M.I.L.F., according to Murad, is not allied with Abu Sayyaf, and he questions Abu Sayyaf's conversion to Islamic ideals and to the cause of a separate Muslim nation in the southern Philippines. "The original Abu Sayyaf group, under the older brother Abdurajak, had a political objective," he says. "As far as the personality of the younger brother Khadaffy is concerned, he's not an ideological leader and I don't know how much control he has with the organization."

Murad firmly dismisses widespread allegations that his own group has collaborated with regional terrorist body Jemaah Islamiah (J.I.)—al-Qaeda's main offshoot in Southeast Asia—or allowed it to train in areas under M.I.L.F. control: "We have had no link with Jemaah Islamiah." But he admits that plenty of non-Philippine radicals have visited M.I.L.F. camps in the past—especially before Sept. 11, 2001—including Indonesian explosives expert Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, who was killed a year ago in a shootout with government troops in the city of Cotabato. (Murad says al-Ghozi's J.I. connections weren't known when he was with the M.I.L.F.) He also admits that J.I. members may still be around. "It is not impossible that some members of the M.I.L.F. have a personal relationship, but I assure you that the M.I.L.F. will not tolerate terrorism."

Regional security experts say a peace accord between Murad and Arroyo would probably spell the death knell for J.I. "It's simple," says Zachary Abuza, a Southeast Asia terrorism expert. "Without their bases in the Philippines, Jemaah Islamiah cannot survive." Murad goes so far as to say Americans can come on an inspection tour of his camps. "We have nothing to hide," he says with a smile. If he really wants peace, Murad will have to ensure that by the time any peace accord is nearing completion, that claim is true.