Abu Sayyaf rebels 'funnels arms' to RI separatists
Abu Sayyaf rebels 'funnels arms' to RI separatists
MANILA (AFP): Abu Sayyaf rebels are funneling arms to Indonesian separatists while kidnapping foreigners for ransom in the southern Philippines, a top Filipino official said Wednesday.
Retired general Eduardo Ermita, a security adviser to President Gloria Arroyo, named the rebels for the first time in connection with arms shipments to guerrillas in the Indonesian provinces of Aceh and Irian Jaya.
Speaking after a state visit here last week by Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri, Ermita said Indonesia had talked of "firearms moving in from the border of the Philippines into the border with Indonesia".
"It did not say specifically these are Abu Sayyaf" shipments, he told reporters.
But smuggled firearms are "somehow supplying the rebel forces in Aceh, and even Irian Jaya", and Philippine authorities had concluded "that in all probability it's the Abu Sayyaf", Ermita said.
Manila is also investigating pilferage at military armories, Ermita said, adding it was "possible" U.S.-made rifles in Abu Sayyaf hands were either stolen from the military or sold to them by rogue soldiers.
Southeast Asian countries are worried about the rise of religious and other separatist guerrilla movements from Mindanao in the Philippines and in the two Indonesian provinces.
The Abu Sayyaf, a small group of well-armed Islamic separatists, hold a U.S. Christian missionary couple and 16 Filipino hostages in the southern Philippine island of Basilan. Filipino and Indonesian authorities did not discuss the volume or manner of shipments, Ermita said.
"But you can assume that these are high-powered firearms," he said. "You don't launch or continue the revolution using handguns."
Megawati's concern was the reason Arroyo "highlighted the need to strengthen our border patrol agreements" with Indonesia as well as with Malaysia, Ermita said.
Abu Sayyaf rebels raided two Malaysian tourist island resorts off Borneo island last year and abducted western hostages, most of whom were reportedly released after ransoms were paid.
Filipino officials said the rebels used the money to acquire more guns and faster vessels, which they put to use when they raided the Dos Palmas resort in the western Philippines on May 27 to snatch some of their current batch of hostages.
Ermita said the Abu Sayyaf went into kidnappings to generate funds which they used to purchase arms "from whatever source, and then maybe when they have enough, maybe they sell some of them to generate a profit and buy another (batch). It's a vicious cycle".
Asked how the Abu Sayyaf transact gun shipments with Indonesian rebels, Ermita said "we have no knowledge as to whether they do this through intermediaries" or whether these were "transactions among revolutionary forces".
Arroyo has sent 5,000 troops to Basilan to crush the Abu Sayyaf, but the rebels have continually eluded their pursuers.
Her government is holding peace talks with another Moro separatist group, the 12,500-member Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which is observing a cease-fire.
Manila hopes to sign a political settlement to end the 23-year MILF rebellion by the end of the year, but Ermita admitted the disposal of rebel firearms could be a headache.
"Chances are, they might just dispose of some of their firearms" in the black market, he said.
Meanwhile, Philippine President Gloria Arroyo will meet with China's ambassador here later this week to assure Beijing her government was doing its best to secure a Chinese national held captive by Moro gunmen, her spokesman said Wednesday.
"The president has scheduled a meeting anytime this week ... with the Chinese ambassador to explain personally what the administration has been doing and to assure the Chinese that this administration is very concerned about the kidnapping incident," presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said.