Military build-up on Philippine hostage island
JOLO, Philippines, Sept 15
(AFP) - President Joseph Estrada on Friday boosted the military presence in the remote
southern Philippine island of Jolo where Muslim extremists are holding 22 hostages,
despite ruling out an immediate rescue bid.
The military build up came as
negotiators prepared for talks with the Abu Sayyaf gunmen to free two of the captives --
French journalists Jean-Jacques Le Garrec and Roland Madura.
The Frenchmen should walk free
"perhaps in the next day or two," said provincial governor Abdusakur Tan.
But there was no sign of the
top negotiators on Jolo island Friday. Instead, a military plane and six helicopters
droped off at least five senior and mid-level officers, including Brigadier General
Narciso Abaya, the commander of the army's First Infantry Division.
Three marine battalions were
also scheduled to fly into the island shortly, military staff said.
Estrada has been under intense
pressure to authorize military action against the self-styled Muslim independence fighters
who are believed to have accumulated millions of dollars in ransom from the four month-old
hostage crisis.
Estrada cut short a US trip on
Wednesday to return to Manila to deal with the crisis after the gunmen seized three new
hostages from the Malaysian resort of Pandanan.
"I know what I am
doing," Estrada insisted Friday, defending his decision to pursue talks.
"We cannot employ force
immediately because the lives of innocent people are at stake. We cannot attack without a
strategy in place. We are still studying it."
His stance won backing Friday
from visiting US Secretary of State William Cohen, who said "the best course of
action in dealing with a hostage situation is negotiation."
Cohen, who is due to call on
Estrada late Friday, said the US military is prepared to train crack Filipino
counter-terrorism units in hostage rescues.
Aside from the Frenchmen, the
gunmen also hold American Jeffrey Schilling, three Malaysians, and 16 Filipinos. One of
the local captives has been held since April 23, when the heavily armed guerrillas seized
their first group of hostages from a Malaysian dive resort.
Governor Tan said negotiators
"are coming in anytime either today or tomorrow" in a bid to end the Frenchmen's
78-day jungle ordeal.
"Of course we are hopeful
something is going to happen -- possibly within the day or at the latest by
tomorrow."
He said no negotiators have
been appointed for Malaysian hostages Kan Wei Chong, Joseph Ongkinoh and Mohamed Noor
Sulaiman, and "so far we have not received any" demands.
A government emissary returned
Friday from an overnight visit to the guerrilla faction holding American hostage
Schilling.
"There will be no releases
today," hostage negotiator Munib Estino told reporters after the emissary briefed
him.
Local officials insisted the
arrival of the senior Filipino military officers on Jolo was unrelated to the hostage
crisis.
But the officers' staff said on
condition of anonymity that three marine battalions were scheduled to land on the island
shortly.
The battalions are due to pull
out from nearby Mindanao island, where they have been battling another group of Muslim
separatist rebels for the past five months.
"It does not look like we
are coming here to rest," one soldier told AFP.
The Abu Sayyaf has freed in
batches about two dozen other hostages, including 20 from the first kidnapping.
They handed over the westerners
to Libya in exchange for pledges of "development aid" -- although the Philippine
military say the Abu Sayyaf reaped millions of dollars in ransom.
Back to Sipadan/Pandanan Hostages News
Back
to This Week's Borneo News |
