Malaysia in a fix over hostages in RP

Malaysia in a fix over hostages in RP

By Nelson Graves

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): Guerrillas holding 21 hostages in the
Philippines have put Malaysia in a bind, forcing Kuala Lumpur to
consider accepting thousands of illegal immigrants in surprise
talks that irked Manila.

Malaysian envoys last Thursday met separately with Abu Sayyaf
rebels on Jolo island, where the guerrillas have held the
hostages for four weeks.

The unilateral meeting provoked quick criticism from the
Philippines, which said Malaysia had jeopardized their own
tenuous negotiations with the militants, as well as from foreign
governments whose nationals are among the captives.

Philippine government chief negotiator Robert Aventajado,
brushing aside Malaysia's assurance that it had cleared its talks
with Manila, said of Kuala Lumpur's initiative: "This is not good
because it would make our job more difficult."

Demands put by the rebels to the Malaysian officials
underscored the diplomatic stakes in the hostage ordeal.

The Abu Sayyaf militants told the Malaysians they want the
establishment of a commission to review the status of an
estimated 500,000 Filipinos living in Sabah, a Malaysian state on
the northeastern tip of Borneo island that shares a border with
both the Philippines and Indonesia.

The Philippines has never formally renounced a claim over
Sabah, which is adjacent to the Sulu archipelago in the southern
Philippines where Abu Sayyaf guerrillas have their base.

While geographically contiguous, Sabah and Sulu are otherwise
studies in contrast. With thriving tourism and plentiful natural
resources including oil, Sabah is substantially more developed
than Sulu, where an Islamic insurgency has hampered development.

Close ethnic ties between the Tausug people of Sulu and those
living on the Sabah coast have facilitated the influx of illegal
immigrants into the easternmost part of Malaysia.

A chronic labor shortage and economic boom in the 1980s and
1990s induced Malaysia to accept hundreds of thousands of
immigrants. But a recession in 1998 prompted the deportation of
thousands of immigrants, mostly to neighboring Indonesia.

Malaysian police rounded up more than 1,100 Filipinos in Sabah
within two weeks of the April 23 kidnappings, stirring
indignation in the Philippines.

The Philippines' immigration commissioner said Filipinos --
mostly women and children -- were being "herded like cattle".

"The roundup would seem to be Malaysia's revenge on the
Philippines," the Philippine Daily Inquirer said.

Manila said on May 13 that "it would not hesitate to file a
diplomatic protest if it confirms maltreatment of Filipinos."

Malaysia, wary of the diplomatic fallout, stopped the round-
ups earlier this month.

Now the guerrillas are asking Malaysia to form a commission to
examine the welfare of thousands of Filipinos living in Sabah.

"They said if these illegal immigrants are sent back to the
Philippines, they will suffer both socially and economically,"
Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said last Friday.

The Star newspaper said the Abu Sayyaf had released a
memorandum on Jolo, 960 kilometers (600 miles) south of Manila.

"The commission should look into the welfare of the Bangsamoro
people of Sabah and investigate the human rights violations
committed against them in the past 20 years," The Star quoted the
memorandum as saying. The Bangsamoro people come from the
southern Philippines.

The rebels' demand is fraught with potential diplomatic
consequences, not least of which is the possible calling into
question of Malaysia's claim to Sabah and its policy towards
illegal immigrants.

Syed Hamid acknowledged the quandary for Malaysia, which wants
its nine nationals released along with the other hostages --
three Germans, two French, two South Africans, two Finns, two
Filipinos and one Lebanese -- but not at the expense of its
sovereignty or immigration policy.

"We will weigh (the demand) accordingly. If it involved our
laws and sovereignty, we have to look in that context, but we
also want to see the release of the hostages," he said."

Malaysia is loath to accept allegations it has mistreated
immigrants. "It is always our policy that we do not ill treat
illegal," Syed Hamid said.

Malaysia clings tightly to Sabah and plans to build a new
naval base in Semporna town, near Sipadan Island where the
hostages were seized, to help patrol the pirate-infested waters.

Another danger for Malaysia, which has not ruled out paying
ransom, is the possibility its nationals could be treated
differently from the rest of the hostages -- even released
separately -- if it pursued talks on its own.

That could leave predominantly Muslim Malaysia open to charges
that it had favored its nationals in talks with militants
fighting to carve an Islamic homeland out of the mostly Catholic
Philippines.