21 Abu Sayyaf hostages seen alive on RP island
21 Abu Sayyaf hostages seen alive on RP island
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AFP): Two Americans and 19 Filipinos
held by Abu Sayyaf guerrillas are still alive and have been seen
by government agents in the southern Philippine island of
Basilan, the military said Friday.
The sighting by "deep penetration agents" (DPAs), government
infiltrators in the rebellion-torn island, was the first in
almost a week.
Lt. Col. Danilo Servando said rebel movements were being
increasingly limited by a 5,000-member military task force sent
to Basilan to rescue the hostages, among them U.S. Christian
missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham.
Meanwhile, President Gloria Arroyo told reporters she would
"beef up security" for her family amid police fears the Abu
Sayyaf could mount terrorist attacks in Manila.
Three suspected Abu Sayyaf members were arrested in the
capital this week.
"We have sightings of the remaining hostages. They (the Abu
Sayyaf) have no liberty to move in the areas controlled by them
because of the troops' presence and information provided by our
DPAs," the military spokesman told reporters.
He would not say what the hostages' condition was, saying only
that they were in the Sampinit complex -- a 30 square-kilometer
(12 square-mile) expanse of tropical jungle in the hilly interior
of Basilan.
Two Filipino hostages walked free on Tuesday, reportedly after
a huge ransom was paid.
Servando said these two had told their military debriefers
that they had been sleeping in an elevated area, indicating they
were on one of the mountains in Sampinit.
The two said the American missionaries were still alive. The
rebels have claimed to have beheaded a third American hostage,
Californian Guillermo Sobero, but his body has not been found.
Filipino Senator Rodolfo Biazon warned the kidnappers, who say
they are working to set up an Islamic state in the southern third
of mainly Roman Catholic Philippines, have sent 50 recruits to
train with the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan.
Retired military chief Biazon said the information was relayed
to him by a Philippine official in a United Nations mission to
Afghanistan investigating the training of suspected terrorists
there.
The report means "we will have to contend with a strengthened
Abu Sayyaf," he said on government television.
Washington and Moscow have accused the Taliban Islamic
militia, which controls much of Afghanistan, of harboring
suspected terrorists, including Saudi dissident millionaire Osama
bin Laden.
Philippines Vice President Teofisto Guingona said these
Filipino trainees would be beyond Manila's reach there.
"We don't have diplomatic relations with Afghanistan and we
don't have the right to knock at Afghanistan and ask for these
Filipinos. We have to wait for UN action," he told reporters.
In a kidnapping spree that began on May 27, the Abu Sayyaf
seized 39 people, including the three Americans from a tourist
resort off western Palawan island. They have since killed four
Filipinos.
More than a dozen others have been freed.
On Wednesday, Abu Sayyaf forces set off bombs in the Basilan
capital of Isabela in what the military said was an attempt to
divert the attention of the kidnap task force.
On Friday rumors of an Abu Sayyaf plot to kidnap students
cleared out a Roman Catholic school in this southern city, with
anxious parents pulling out scores of students.
Police said the panic at Ateneo de Zamboanga was caused by a
hoax.
Col. Damming Unga, head of an anti-terrorism task force here,
said citizens were giving more tips on suspected Abu Sayyaf
infiltrators in their areas, with an eye on the huge bounty the
government has placed on the heads of Abu Sayyaf leaders.