| Sulu hostage crisis mishandled -- Misuari QUEZON CITY, (ABS-CBN) - Secretary
Robert Aventajado's predecessor in handling the Sulu hostage crisis says it has been
mishandled by the government.
Governor Nur Misuari of the Autonomous Region for Muslim
Mindanao (ARMM) said this on Thursday, adding that the crisis would have been over had he
not been replaced by President Estrada.
"They did not like me because I did not like this
business of paying (ransom)," he said, hinting that despite the government's
no-ransom policy, it actually favored money secretly changing hands.
Misuari, who also chairs the formerly secessionist Moro
National Liberation Front (MNLF), recalled that he sent 3,000 MNLF fighters to Basilan
where hostages where previously held, to encircle the Abu Sayyaf.
"I wanted to control all the roads, all the movements,
not only of the Abu Sayyaf but of people coming to them, and I even prohibited the sending
of rice to them, I wanted to control everything, so that instead of them dictating to us
their terms, it would be the government dictating to them," he said.
Misuari said this was the formula he used in securing the
release of several persons abducted previously by armed groups in Mindanao, including two
engineers and some Spanish nuns.
"I was determined to do my job quickly and without money
transferring from one hand to another," he said.
This was the commitment he made to the President, to Armed
Forces chief Gen. Angelo Reyes, to the countries whose nationals are among the hostages,
and even to the Organization of the Islamic Conference which criticized the Abu Sayyaf for
taking hostages, he added.
Misuari pointed out that after he was replaced, hundreds of
millions of pesos were "siphoned off to the Abu Sayyaf which in turn used the money
to produce arms which they even showed on television."
"This is very disturbing to us, because in the end, it
would be the ARMM government that would have to face the consequences of this," he
said. Sulu is one of four existing ARMM provinces.
At the time he was replaced, Misuari claimed the Abu Sayyaf
had a force of 120 only, but this number has soared to more than 2,000.
Misuari also said a faction of
the Abu Sayyaf has a political agenda, but the whole group has apparently been overwhelmed
by those advocating kidnapping and terrorism.
He said that the kidnappers have one major demand, apart from
money, but which he declined to reveal.
Asked if he would be willing to play the role of negotiator
again, Misuari said he would accept the job only if he has a written and complete mandate
from the President and the foreign governments with hostages in Sulu.
He said the support of the Armed Forces and the police would
also be critical.
Opposition congressmen have also criticized the government's
handling of the Sulu hostage crisis.
They said private parties have been allowed to deal and talk
money with the kidnappers, with Aventajado acting as a mere facilitator of the payroll and
as an escort of freed hostages.
Renegotiation
As this developed, government emissaries met Abu Sayyaf
leaders in Jolo, Sulu to discuss proposals of the bandit group to release the hostages in
batches beginning with four female Caucasians.
Farouk Hussein, a Muslim peace advocate, said the kidnappers
are seeking to hold on to their German, French, Finnish, South African, and Filipino
hostages to the very end, wary that a military offensive may be staged against them soon
after all hostages are freed.
Government intelligence sources said a local ethnic Chinese
tycoon Lee Peng Wee, credited with the earlier release of all nine Malaysian hostages, had
also sent his emissaries to the gunmen's mountain hideout.
Lee's relationship with Aventajado got strained last July over
the release of seven remaining Malaysians. Two had earlier been freed.
But both sides said they would set aside their differences for
national interest. Four more Malaysian were released last July while the last three were
freed just last week.
Meanwhile, Aventajado said that a formula he worked out with
the approval of the Libyan government would be submitted to the Abu Sayyaf as early as
Friday, to restart the process for the release of 12 Western hostages.
Aventajado had said the scheduled release of the hostages last
Saturday was called off because of a kink in negotiations between the Abu Sayyaf and
Libyan mediator Rajab Azzarouq.
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