| Final assault vs Abu set Military decision triggered by Mindanao clamor –Nur
By Herbie S. Gomez, Charmaine Deogracias, Marian Trinidad, Manny B.
Marinay, Joel San Juan and Mirasol Ng-Gadil
CAGAYAN de Oro
City—The military is preparing to launch a full-scale assault on Abu Sayyaf bandits
to put an end to their kidnap-for-ransom activities in the South, Autonomous Region in
Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Nur Misuari disclosed yesterday.
The former Moro
rebel chief said officials gave a green light to the military offensive because of a
growing clamor for the government to crush the extremist rebel group.
“The
public opinion for a military action against this group is too strong because it has
focused more on the business of kidnapping rather than on ideological warfare,” he
said.
Misuari said he
would meet next week Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Diomedio Villanueva in Jolo, Sulu, to
discuss plans on the military action against the Muslim bandits now holding captive
24-year-old African-American Jeffrey Craig Edward Schilling.
Misuari’s
statement fanned fears about American participation in the offensive. Militant groups have
been reporting sightings of United States troops in Mindanao and other islands.
Defense Secretary
Orlando Mercado, however, allayed concerns.
The US troops, he
said, were part of the war exercises planned long before the Abu Sayyaf started grabbing
hostages.
“There
is no military option at the moment,” Mercado told reporters. “We’re not
saying the military option is the only option. We cannot be precipitate in our actions.
There are ways of resolving the situation peacefully.”
Not me
As this developed,
Abu Sayyaf leader Ghalib “Robot” Andang disclaimed any role in the American’s
kidnapping.”
Chief government
negotiator Robert Aventajado Jr. quoted Andang as saying that he had nothing to do with
the Schilling case, and “doesn’t want to have anything with it.”
Schilling is
believed held by an Abu Sayyaf faction led by Abu Sabaya and Radulan Sahiron, who had
earlier figured in the beheading of teachers in Basilan.
Press Secretary
Ricardo Puno said Malacañang has received a copy of Robot’s letter to Aventajado.
Troops beefed
up
A highly-placed
ranking military officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told THE MANILA TIMES the
Southern Command has augmented its forces in Jolo, Sulu, with troops redeployed from
Northern Mindanao, the Caraga Region and other areas in Mindanao.
“Nauubos
na ang pasensiya namin, masyado ng napapahiya si Presidente (Our patience is running out,
the President is being subjected to further embarrassment),” the source said, adding
the deployment of additional troops was in preparation for an all-out assault against the
kidnappers.
A retired military
general, however, said the Abu Sayyaf is no longer that easy to lick given its present
manpower strength and powerful firearms.
He said that from
200, the group now boasts of 2,500 active combatants, and has acquired modern and powerful
firearms with the estimated $11-million ransom it got for the release of majority of
hostages it kidnapped from Sipadan, Malaysia.
Any military
operations against the bandits, particularly the Robot-Susukan faction, should have been
carried out two weeks after the April 23 abduction of the Sipadan hostages, he said.
The Jolo-based Abu
Sayyaf has threatened to behead Schilling unless its demands, among them the release of
three international terrorists in the US and more foreign media coverage, are met. The
rest of its demands remained unspecified.
The United States
said it would not pay any ransom or strike any deal with the Abu Sayyaf in exchange for
Schilling’s freedom.
However, the
source, who gained prominence during the stint of Armed Forces chief of staff Gen. Joselin
Nazareno, said the “US government will definitely do something about this (problem
with the Abu Sayyaf terrorists).”
He stressed,
“They (Americans) have always had a hard stand against terrorism and kidnapping.”
The US considers
the Abu Sayyaf as an international terrorist group, the source added.
Malacañang
blamed
“What
this group has done is a crime against humanity. In fact, it is the highest form of
abnormality to sell human beings,” said Misuari, chief of the former mainstream
secessionist rebel organization, Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which signed a
peace pact with government in 1996.
In a Mindanao-wide
radio interview from Iligan City, Misuari blamed Malacañang for replacing him as chief
government negotiator, saying he would have prevented the problem from becoming
complicated.
As government
negotiator, Misuari said he tapped the MNLF to corner the Abu Sayyaf and confine the
problem in Jolo.
“The Abu
Sayyaf was a tiny problem, it was very small for me. Now, it’s already
uncontrollable,” Misuari said as he washed his hands off the case.
“Since
things have become very complicated, I do not want to be embroiled in this problem
anymore,” he said.
Back to Sipadan Hostages News
Back
to This Week's Borneo News |
