Abduction threat lends terror to Pope's RP visit
Abduction threat lends terror to Pope's RP visit
ISABELA, Philippines (Agencies): Moslem fundamentalists in this southern island of Basilan are threatening to kidnap and behead Catholic priests during Pope John Paul II's visit to this country next week, a police official said yesterday.
Superintendent Sukarno De Guzman Tikbala, the provincial police chief said intelligence sources had revealed that the fundamentalist Abu Sayyaf group planned to kidnap and behead the priests in order to embarrass the government and the country's Roman Catholic hierarchy.
Tikbala added that the Abu Sayyaf, which is blamed for a series of attacks against Christian targets in recent years, has since grown to about 600 men with reinforcements coming from outlaws in the region.
Basilan Bishop Romulo dela Cruz said there are only five priests still assigned to the province, all of them in predominantly Moslem towns.
The Abu Sayyaf kidnapped and beheaded a village chief and his son last week. The Manila archbishop, Cardinal Jaime Sin, said on Tuesday that "fundamentalists," whom he did not identify, posed a security threat to the pope, who is scheduled to visit this predominantly Catholic nation Jan. 12-16.
In a related event, the regional deputy director of police, Superintendent Abdulgani Manic, said that three suspected Abu Sayyaf members believed responsible for the murder of three wild- boar hunters in this island on Dec. 24, were killed in a clash with police in Basilan on Monday.
Manic denied press reports in Manila that quoted the military as saying the Abu Sayyaf had obtained surface-to-air missiles in an arms shipment, but said that the group is known to have about 40 French-made mortars.
Hasip Hashim Tantung, mayor of Lantawan town in Basilan confirmed that about 100 Christian residents of his town had fled their homes from fear of the Abu Sayyaf after the military suspended operations against them to negotiate for the freedom of five surveyors they kidnapped in November.
Meanwhile, more than 1,000 Filipinos have fled their homes in southern Basilan island, a guerrilla commander said yesterday.
Ahmad Omar, local spokesman for the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), said people fled eight villages in Lantawan municipality following the decapitation.
The MNLF, the mainstream Moslem rebel group, is holding peace talks with the Manila government. Omar urged the military to hunt down Abu Sayyaf, the most radical of Moslem groups fighting for self-rule in the southern islands.
"This group should be crushed at the earliest possible time because their presence has instilled fear among our people," he said.
The military, which has blamed Abu Sayyaf for a spate of kidnappings and bombings in the region in the past two years, launched a major offensive against the fundamentalist group last year but failed to wipe it out.
Omar, quoting information supplied by villagers, said Abu Sayyaf fighters were holding five land surveyors whom they kidnapped in Basilan in November. They have demanded a ransom of one million pesos (US$41,000).
The fighters are using their captives to carry ammunition and cook for them, he said.