/ stevenwarran's Library/ Notes/ June 18, 2001, The Sydney Morning Herald, Last year's ransoms keep Muslim rebels in business
June 18, 2001, The Sydney Morning Herald, Last year's ransoms keep Muslim rebels in business
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June 18, 2001, The Sydney Morning Herald, Last year's ransoms keep Muslim rebels in business, by Richard Paddock in Manila,
Released by Abu Sayyaf Muslim guerillas, freed hostage Kimberly Jao, 15, arrives at Philippine Air Force headquarters, comforted by a relative. Photo: AFP
If there is one thing the Abu Sayyaf rebels of the southern Philippines have learned in the past 15 months it is that crime pays.
Until last year they were a struggling gang of Islamic bandits subsisting on ransom payments from occasional kidnappings of local business people. Then they staged a daring raid on an island resort in Malaysia, snatched 20 foreigners and a Filipino and netted a ransom windfall: as much as $US25 million ($47.7million) paid by Libya.
Now the Abu Sayyaf gang, swelling with new recruits and sometimes better equipped than the Philippine military, has created a new international incident with the kidnapping of three Americans and 17 Filipinos from an island resort in the Philippines.
Two of the Filipino hostages were freed at the weekend after reportedly paying $US200,000 in ransom, and trekking for two days through the jungle to reach safety, officials said.
Francis Ganzon, 50, and Kimberly Jao, 13, were brought to the capital on Saturday to meet President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, but they were unable to confirm the fate of fellow hostage Guillermo Sobero of California, whom the rebels claim to have beheaded.
The two, the oldest and youngest of the hostages, were among the group seized from the resort on Palawan island three weeks ago.
They were released with a Muslim cleric, Ustadz Mohaymin Salih, who authorities reported last week had also been murdered when he went to the rebel camp to try to negotiate freedom for the hostages.
Mr Ganzon said he last saw Mr Sobero on Tuesday and that the tourist was tied up. That was the same day that a rebel leader called a local radio station and said the kidnappers had beheaded Mr Sobero.
The rebel leader told the other hostages that Mr Sobero had been killed because the Government was refusing to negotiate.
In an interview with the Radio Mindanao network, Mr Ganzon said Mr Sobero had been shot in the foot during a battle on June3 between armed forces and the rebels in the Basilan island town of Lamitan.
Mr Sobero was limping from the wound, Mr Ganzon said, and was having difficulty keeping up as the group travelled through the jungle.
Mr Ganzon said the two other American hostages, Martin and Gracia Burnham, missionaries from Kansas, were also wounded in the Lamitan battle.
Mr Ganzon said he had not seen the Burnhams since Wednesday, when the hostages were split into three groups.
The hostages were suffering from a lack of food and proper shelter, and some were getting sick, he said. He called on Dr Arroyo to call off military action and negotiate with the kidnappers.
But Dr Arroyo has vowed to "crush" the rebels, a high-risk strategy that could lead to a lengthy stand-off and jeopardise the lives of the hostages.
"They live by the Draconian code of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," the President declared. "We have responded in kind."
Abu Sayyaf, which means Father of the Sword, was formed 10 years ago amid the poverty, despair and Islamic extremism of the southern Philippines.
The region, made up of hundreds of islands, has historically been a zone of conflict between Muslims and Christians. It is here that the spread of Islam from the south and west was halted hundreds of years ago by the arrival of Spanish colonialists and Catholicism from the north. The two religions have coexisted uneasily since, with Catholicism practised by a majority of Filipinos.
It is unclear why the government of then president Joseph Estrada approved the $US25million Libyan payment to secure the release of the previous batch of hostages, knowing that it would make Abu Sayyaf stronger than ever. Some suggest that officials involved in the decision received a share of money.
The speedboats used in the most recent kidnapping, said to have 1,000-horsepower engines, were allegedly bought with the Libyan money. So was the rocket launcher the rebels used to kill an army captain trailing the kidnappers.
Los Angeles Times
If there is one thing the Abu Sayyaf rebels of the southern Philippines have learned in the past 15 months it is that crime pays.
Until last year they were a struggling gang of Islamic bandits subsisting on ransom payments from occasional kidnappings of local business people. Then they staged a daring raid on an island resort in Malaysia, snatched 20 foreigners and a Filipino and netted a ransom windfall: as much as $US25 million ($47.7million) paid by Libya.
Now the Abu Sayyaf gang, swelling with new recruits and sometimes better equipped than the Philippine military, has created a new international incident with the kidnapping of three Americans and 17 Filipinos from an island resort in the Philippines.
Two of the Filipino hostages were freed at the weekend after reportedly paying $US200,000 in ransom, and trekking for two days through the jungle to reach safety, officials said.
Francis Ganzon, 50, and Kimberly Jao, 13, were brought to the capital on Saturday to meet President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, but they were unable to confirm the fate of fellow hostage Guillermo Sobero of California, whom the rebels claim to have beheaded.
The two, the oldest and youngest of the hostages, were among the group seized from the resort on Palawan island three weeks ago.
They were released with a Muslim cleric, Ustadz Mohaymin Salih, who authorities reported last week had also been murdered when he went to the rebel camp to try to negotiate freedom for the hostages.
Mr Ganzon said he last saw Mr Sobero on Tuesday and that the tourist was tied up. That was the same day that a rebel leader called a local radio station and said the kidnappers had beheaded Mr Sobero.
The rebel leader told the other hostages that Mr Sobero had been killed because the Government was refusing to negotiate.
In an interview with the Radio Mindanao network, Mr Ganzon said Mr Sobero had been shot in the foot during a battle on June3 between armed forces and the rebels in the Basilan island town of Lamitan.
Mr Sobero was limping from the wound, Mr Ganzon said, and was having difficulty keeping up as the group travelled through the jungle.
Mr Ganzon said the two other American hostages, Martin and Gracia Burnham, missionaries from Kansas, were also wounded in the Lamitan battle.
Mr Ganzon said he had not seen the Burnhams since Wednesday, when the hostages were split into three groups.
The hostages were suffering from a lack of food and proper shelter, and some were getting sick, he said. He called on Dr Arroyo to call off military action and negotiate with the kidnappers.
But Dr Arroyo has vowed to "crush" the rebels, a high-risk strategy that could lead to a lengthy stand-off and jeopardise the lives of the hostages.
"They live by the Draconian code of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," the President declared. "We have responded in kind."
Abu Sayyaf, which means Father of the Sword, was formed 10 years ago amid the poverty, despair and Islamic extremism of the southern Philippines.
The region, made up of hundreds of islands, has historically been a zone of conflict between Muslims and Christians. It is here that the spread of Islam from the south and west was halted hundreds of years ago by the arrival of Spanish colonialists and Catholicism from the north. The two religions have coexisted uneasily since, with Catholicism practised by a majority of Filipinos.
It is unclear why the government of then president Joseph Estrada approved the $US25million Libyan payment to secure the release of the previous batch of hostages, knowing that it would make Abu Sayyaf stronger than ever. Some suggest that officials involved in the decision received a share of money.
The speedboats used in the most recent kidnapping, said to have 1,000-horsepower engines, were allegedly bought with the Libyan money. So was the rocket launcher the rebels used to kill an army captain trailing the kidnappers.
Los Angeles Times
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