Arroyo orders 'all-out war' on Abu Sayyaf rebels<\/p>\n
MANILA (Agencies): President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered
\n\"all-out war\" on a band of Abu Sayyaf extremists on Monday, hours
\nafter they vowed to behead a U.S. hostage to mark the leader's
\nbirthday.<\/p>\n
\"We will pursue every one of them relentlessly,\" Arroyo said
\nin a press conference of the Abu Sayyaf group in the southern
\nPhilippines. \"We shall annihilate them. We will never, ever
\nnegotiate with them.\"<\/p>\n
The attack order comes as Arroyo prepares for peace talks with
\ncommunist rebels of the New People's Army and the Moro Islamic
\nLiberation Front, a larger Muslim rebel group.<\/p>\n
Hours before Arroyo's announcement, Abu Sabaya, an Abu Sayyaf
\nleader, told the local Radio Mindanao Network that his men will
\nbehead 25-year-old Oakland native Jeffrey Schilling, captive
\nsince last August, on Thursday to mark Arroyo's 54th birthday.<\/p>\n
Abu Sayyaf beheaded two Filipino hostages last year, on April
\n19, as a \"birthday gift\" to then-President Joseph Estrada as he
\nturned 63.<\/p>\n
Sabaya has threatened several times to kill Schilling in an
\neffort to persuade the Philippine or the U.S. government to pay a
\n$10-million ransom for his release. He tried to convince
\nauthorities Monday that he is serious this time.<\/p>\n
\"We are not joking,\" Sabaya added. \"You better inform his
\nmother in the U.S. about his execution so she may talk for the
\nlast time to her son.\"<\/p>\n
In contrast to her conciliatory statement to other insurgents,
\nArroyo said Monday that any Abu Sayyaf member who voluntarily
\nsurrenders will face charges anyway. The government has offered
\namnesty in the past to surrendered members of other armed groups.<\/p>\n
\"They are a money-crazed gang of criminals,\" Arroyo said.
\n\"They have no ideology.\" Arroyo said she talked to U.S. officials
\nin the Philippines before ordering the assault and they backed
\nthe action.<\/p>\n
The U.S. government announced on Monday that the U.S. Agency
\nfor International Development and a private group, Action against
\nHunger, are to provide some $422,625 to help about 30,000 of the
\nMindanao evacuees.<\/p>\n
Arroyo said on Monday that thousands of Filipinos displaced by
\na Muslim separatist rebellion are streaming back to their war-
\nravaged villages in the island of Mindanao on the eve of a
\nceasefire.<\/p>\n
\"As a result of the work of the Interact-Mindanao (the
\ngovernment committee for rehabilitation), evacuees have started
\nto return to their villages, some of which are located in
\nAbubakar,\" Arroyo told a press conference.<\/p>\n
Arroyo estimated last February, when she declared a unilateral
\ntruce, that half of the estimated 600,000 people displaced by the
\nmilitary operation had yet to return home.<\/p>\n
The military campaign, which cost the government a billion
\npesos ($20 million) to prosecute according to Arroyo aides, led
\nto the collapse of peace talks and a terrorist backlash of deadly
\nbombings of population centers in Manila and elsewhere.<\/p>\n
After secret high-level talks brokered by Malaysia in Kuala
\nLumpur last month, the MILF agreed to hold peace talks and to
\ndeclare a ceasefire.<\/p>\n
Military Chief of Staff Diomedio Villanueva said Monday the
\nAbu Sayyaf has 1,200 armed members.<\/p>\n
Abu Sayyaf, which says it is fighting for a Muslim homeland,
\noperates mainly on the island of Jolo, about 940 kilometers (580
\nmiles) south of Manila.<\/p>\n
Estrada ordered a mass assault last September, using the navy
\nto blockade Jolo while artillery and bomber airplanes pummeled
\nthe island to make way for mass infantry attacks.<\/p>\n
But the army complained the rebels drop weapons and blend in
\nwith the civilians to escape assaults. Sporadic clashes have
\ncontinued since Estrada's one-month assault.<\/p>\n
Arroyo's administration is also scheduled to start peace talks
\nApril 27 with communist rebels of the New People's Army which is
\nfighting nationwide to overthrow the government.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/arroyo-orders-all-out-war-on-abu-sayyaf-rebels-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}