| Gov't
patience with Sayyaf wearing thinBy EDD K. USMAN
Government negotiators'
patience could be wearing thin in talking with the Abu Sayyaf for the freedom of its
hostages in Jolo, Sulu, as the chief negotiator warned yesterday peaceful negotiations
could end if they will seize more captives.
The warning was aired by
Secretary Robert Aventajado, head of the negotiating team, in a radio interview on Monday.
"If they persist on taking
more hostages, the government could change its policy" of solving this problem
through a peaceful negotiation, Aventajado said.
Though he did not explain
further, the top negotiator even in earlier pronouncements had never ruled out a military
option in dealing with the crisis.
Governments of the foreign
hostages - from Germany, France, Finland, South Africa, Lebanon and Malaysia - have been
urging the Philippine government not to mount any military rescue to free the hostages and
end the 100day ordeal that started on April 23 when the Abu Sayyaf made a daring raid in
Sipadan Island, off Sabah, Malaysia, and kidnapped 21 hostages that also included two
Filipinos.
Six Malaysians and a German
mother have been released from the 21 original hostages by the kidnappers who call
themselves freedom fighters, but even their fellow Moros believe their real motive is only
to amass ransom money.
Last week Aventajado asked
journalists who had come to Jolo to cover the crisis to abandon the island and switch
their base to nearby Zamboanga City because law enforcement authorities could not assure
their safety. Reporters of foreign news agencies transferred to Zamboanga on Sunday.
This was after an Abu Sayyaf
faction or lost command headed by a certain "Commander Arafat" earlier named by
Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan as Mujin Abdullah who has less than 10 men abducted on July 24 ABS-CBN
journalists Val Cuenca and Maan Macapagal.
The husband-and-wife team was
released on Saturday after five days in the jungle lair of the kidnapers.
Earlier, a German reporter of
the De Spiegel magazine, who has since been freed, too, was also held.
At present three French
journalists are still in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf, including 12 television evangelists
who visited the kidnappers' camp.
Their penchant for adding -
with seeming impunity - to their hostages, even as negotiations drag on, has apparently
stuck on the nerves of the government negotiators.
The Abu Sayyaf, since day one,
has apparently been dictating the pace of the negotiations against the will of the
government due to the primordial concerns for the hostages' safety.
Aventajado's warning could be a
sign government patience is becoming thin as more Abu Sayyaf factions are being lured by
the prospects of making easy money.
On the other hand, Gov. Nur
Misuari of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) whom Aventajado replaced as
chief negotiator in the early stages of the hostage saga said in a report that winning the
captives' release now may prove more difficult.
"Before we could still put
pressure. We had limited their movements, food and demands," Misuari was quoted by
the Agence France Presse in Zamboanga.
The ARMM governor who is also
chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) arrived via Sandakan, Malaysia on
Saturday evening from more than two months travel abroad.
Most of the Abu Sayyaf leaders
and members, in one way or another, were former MNLF fighters who still respect their
leader.
Misuari said the Abu Sayyaf has
been buying arms using the ransom money they received for the release of their 10
hostages, adding they can now afford even to buy missiles.
Government has always, and
repeatedly, denied paying any ransom, but the MNLF chairman's statement has brought to the
open what has been an "open secret" in Jolo where a proliferation of P1,000
bills is confirmed by Jolo residents visiting to Manila.
Guns' prices have also rose
three times in the island. And a rumor going on now is that a more spectacular raid by the
Abu Sayyaf to kidnap more hostages is afoot, Jolo residents told the Manila Bulletin.
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