June 18, 2001, Orlando Sentinel, Rebels Gain Strength In Philippines, by Pedro Ruz Gutierrez,

June 18, 2001, Orlando Sentinel, Rebels Gain Strength In Philippines, by Pedro Ruz Gutierrez, Sentinel Staff Writer, 

MANILA, Philippines -- When Muslim extremism gave birth to the Abu Sayyaf 10 years ago, it was little more than a ragtag band of bandits committing murders, kidnappings and a string of petty crimes across the islands that dot the southern Philippines. Today the group is at the center of an international standoff, successfully eluding this nation's military, taunting the government and threatening a holy war that Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo says could be a "long-drawn and bloody battle."

What a difference a kidnapping makes.

Fifteen months ago, the Abu Sayyaf staged a brazen attack on a Malaysian diving resort, kidnapping 21 people, including Western tourists and resort employees.

The bounty for their release several months later: a cool $25 million, funneled through Libya's Moammar Gadhafi.

Critics warned against negotiating with the Abu Sayyaf, saying that paying for their hostages' freedom would only provoke repeat acts.

They were right.

The ransom turned the band of Islamic rebels, whose name translates to "Father of the Sword," into a force to be reckoned with.

Their goal: a separate Muslim state in the southern Philippines, a region made up of hundreds of islands that historically has 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 colonists and Roman Catholicism from the north.

The two religions have coexisted uneasily ever since. Muslims are a minority in the mostly Roman Catholic Philippines, but they're a majority in the Mindanao region where the Abu Sayyaf operates.

Now well-financed and well-equipped, the Abu Sayyaf's ranks are swelling.

Their latest strike: The May 27 attack on a Palawan island beach resort, where the terrorists took at least 20 hostages, including three Americans.

"It's their prized catch," said Gen. Edilberto Adan, an army spokesman, of the U.S. hostages. "And that is their bargaining chip."

Two of the Americans, Martin and Gracia Burnham, have worked in the Philippines since 1985 for Sanford-based New Tribes Mission. They were celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary when the Abu Sayyaf raided the Dos Palmas resort.

The third was tourist Guillermo Sobero of Corona, Calif.

Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sabaya announced last week that he had beheaded Sobero, a native of Peru, as a "gift" to Arroyo to celebrate the anniversary of the Philippines' independence from Spain.

Arroyo, in turn, vowed to "hunt down" the Abu Sayyaf and "crush" them.

Sabaya dared the military to find Sobero's body in the thick jungles of Basilan island, where the Abu Sayyaf are holed up.

So far, Sobero's body has not been found, and government officials question whether Sabaya was bluffing.

STRUGGLES ON SEVERAL FRONTS

The Abu Sayyaf's rise comes at a time when the Philippines finds itself under pressure on multiple fronts:

Communist rebels said last week they were ready to abandon peace talks with the government and return to fighting a decades-long war in which thousands have been killed. The government is trying to negotiate a fragile peace with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, another Muslim separatist group.

Ransom-hungry pirates, taking a cue from the Abu Sayyaf, have attacked a half-dozen vessels and taken 15 hostages in recent days in the seas between the Philippines and Malaysia.

But, experts say, the Abu Sayyaf poses by far the most significant threat.

"They are now well-equipped, and they have more resources this time," said Asiri Abubakar, a professor of Asian studies at the University of the Philippines. "The Philippine government is facing greater risks. It is not entirely of their own making, but the government is a victim of what happened in the past."

Arroyo does not dispute that the Abu Sayyaf poses a significant threat.

"The nation is faced with this serious and grave challenge from these bandits," Arroyo said last week. "We must prepare, if need be, for a long-drawn and bloody battle against the Abu Sayyaf."

ABU SAYYAF EXPANDS

As early as the mid-1990s, Philippine intelligence agencies considered the Abu Sayyaf a growing national security threat because of its fanatical elements.

Founder Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, held the group together through charisma and Islamic fundamentalist ideology until he was killed in a confrontation with police in December 1998.

While officials hoped his death would end the Abu Sayyaf, it instead gave rise to a new generation of leaders who, critics say, have more interest in money than religion.

The founder's brother, Khadaffy Janjalani, took over in 1999 but was killed in recent weeks during clashes with the army after the May 27 raid. The group has since split into several factions operating from separate islands. One group is behind the latest kidnappings; a second group carried out last year's abductions.

LINKS TO OSAMA BIN LADEN

The group has also been linked to fugitive terrorism financier Osama bin Laden, the accused mastermind behind the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa, and other international terrorism suspects who frequented Zamboanga City, an Islamic hotbed in Mindanao.

One of them was Saudi Arabian businessman Mohammad Jamal Khalifa, bin Laden's brother-in-law. He is suspected of using Islamic charities and a university in Zamboanga to bankroll Islamic extremists

Ramzi Yousef, serving a life sentence in the United States for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, also offered the Abu Sayyaf explosives training and was behind foiled plots to bomb U.S. airliners over Asia in 1995.

Any pretense of the Abu Sayyaf being an ideologically motivated group died with the elder Janjalani. In March 2000, the rebels kidnapped 58 people, including priests, teachers and children, from a Basilan school.

Pursued by the government forces, the rebels then raided the resort on Sipadan, a popular diving area in Malaysian Borneo not far from the Philippines, and took 21 hostages, most of them divers from Germany, France and South Africa.

The hostages eventually were freed when Libyan leader Gadhafi paid the estimated $25 million in ransom. While ostensibly a goodwill gesture to release the hostages, the payment was a way of subsidizing the activities of the rebel group, financing further kidnappings and promoting instability in the region.

MONEY ENABLES REBELS

It is unclear why the Philippine government of then-President Joseph Estrada approved the Libyan payment, knowing that it would make Abu Sayyaf stronger than ever. Some suggest that officials involved in the decision received a share of the money.

The speedboats used in the latest kidnapping, said to have 1,000-horsepower engines, were allegedly purchased with the Libyan money. So was the rocket launcher the rebels used to kill an army captain trailing the kidnappers.

Since taking in the windfall ransom last year, the Abu Sayyaf's ranks have grown from a few hundred fighters to about 1,200 combatants lured by high pay and caches of new weapons.

In the latest clash with the Abu Sayyaf, the Philippine military response has been characterized as sluggish and clumsy at best. There have been no major confrontations with the group since June 2, when the army failed to shut in the rebels at a Lamitan hospital on Basilan. They escaped with their American hostages and about two dozen others in tow.

Stung by its earlier failure, the government is now amassing up to 5,000 troops -- including a special anti-terrorist squad -- around Basilan.

Experts say Arroyo's pledge to crush the rebel movement could lead to a prolonged and high-stakes standoff.

Still, in public statements, she defended the tactic.

"They live by the Draconian code of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," the president said. "We have responded in kind."