Dealing with Abu Sayyaf kidnappings
Philippine Daily Inquirer, Asia News Network, Manila
After all the terrible things it had done, it looked as if the Abu Sayyaf had exhausted its capacity to shock people and make them recoil in revulsion, horror and anger. However, one call from its spokesperson to a radio station in Zamboanga City last Wednesday showed once again how well the group practices the craft of terrorism.
The government can "start looking for the dead bodies," Abu Sabaya announced after declaring that the Abu Sayyaf had closed the door to negotiations for the release of two American missionaries and a Filipino nurse the group has been holding hostage for almost a year now. He said the Abu Sayyaf decided to withdraw its offer to negotiate after the government flatly rejected it.
The Abu Sayyaf had earlier announced that it was willing to discuss a "last deal" with Presidential Adviser for Special Concerns Norberto Gonzales, Governor Parouk Hussin of the autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao and a former Malaysian senator. Malacaqang spurned the offer, saying it was sticking to its policy of not negotiating with kidnappers particularly in regard to ransom payments.
Exhibiting the twisted logic typical of a criminal mind, Sabaya pointed out that the two-million-dollar ransom his group was demanding was nothing compared to the billions of pesos being spent for the joint Philippine-U.S. military exercises being conducted in Basilan.
Anyone who looks at the Abu Sayyaf's record of cruelty and sadism will have to take this new threat seriously. The group has been known to carry out its most outrageous threats. For instance, in June last year it announced that it would give the head of another American hostage, Guillermo Sobero, as an Independence Day gift to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Weeks later, government troops found the severed head of Sobero. Several Filipinos the group had taken hostage while trying to evade pursuing troops have also been beheaded.
Still the situation is not completely hopeless. Sabaya himself has shown why. When asked if the Abu Sayyaf was ready to execute the American couple, Martin and Gracia Burnham, Sabaya conceded that "holding the hostages is more advantageous to us compared to the two million dollars" it was demanding as ransom.
And how can keeping the hostages alive work to the Abu Sayyaf's advantage? For one thing, the self-styled Islamic revolutionary group believes the drawn-out hostage crisis is a continuing demonstration not only of the ineptness of the Philippine military but also of America's powerlessness in fighting Islamist terrorism. And to their own mind, this makes the Abu Sayyaf members bigger heroes not only at home but in the entire Muslim world.
The second reason is even more practical and compelling: They have to keep the hostages alive to stay alive themselves. They have used their hostages as "human shields" before to escape from tight situations, and they plan to continue to do so. Sabaya hinted as much when he said that if they perceive the odds to have turned badly against them, then they may have to "say goodbye" to the two Americans.
If the choice is between money and their lives, it seems that even the bandits masquerading as freedom fighters will decide like their hostages do.