Recovery of RI sailors test pact
Recovery of RI sailors test pact
Agence France-Presse, Manila
Military operations to recover three Indonesian sailors held
captive by Muslim gunmen in the southern Philippines is seen by
Indonesia as a test of a trilateral terrorism pact it signed with
Manila and Malaysia last month, an official said on Sunday.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda met with Eduardo
Ermita, a senior adviser to President Gloria Arroyo, in last
week's annual meeting of the Organization of Islamic Conference
(OIC) in Sudan and asked to be updated on the kidnapping.
Hassan "told Ermita that Indonesia considered the military-
police operations to recover three Indonesian hostages in Sulu as
a test of the trilateral agreement on the fight against
terrorism," presidential spokesman Silvestre Afable said.
Armed men believed to be bandits boarded a tugboat hauling a
coal-laden barge near the rebel stronghold of Basilan island
earlier this month and seized the vessel's four Indonesian
officers.
The second officer, Ferdinan Joel, escaped two days later. But
the bandits, led by a man called Malud Mahili, still hold the
boat's skipper Muntu Jacobus Winowatan, chief officer Julkipli
and chief engineer Pieter Lerrech.
The police and the military have launched a rescue operation
to recover the Indonesians, who are believed to be held near the
town of Luuk on Jolo island, which is part of the Sulu island
province in the south.
Ermita had assured the Indonesian foreign minister that
President Arroyo gave a "strong directive for the military and
police to run after the kidnappers and rescue the hostages,"
Afable stressed.
A crisis committee has also been set up to closely monitor the
rescue effort, led by Muslim autonomous region governor Parouk
Hussin, he said.
The Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia last month signed a
trilateral agreement to help one another curb cross-border
terrorism and other crimes.
Ermita also said on Sunday the influential OIC is "seriously
considering" a request by predominantly Catholic Philippines to
be granted an observer status.
Ermita, who is on his way back to Manila after attending the
OIC's annual meeting in Sudan last week, relayed the assurance to
the presidential palace, spokesman Silvestre Afable said.
Manila believes OIC representation would be crucial in helping
to solve the decades-long Muslim insurgency in the south.
However the observer status would only be granted once a 1996
OIC-brokered peace pact between the government and the former
Muslim separatist group, Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF),
was fully implemented, Afable said.
"An OIC team will soon visit the Philippines to look into the
implementation of the agreement and should the team report
positively, then the application for the (government) as OIC
observer will be immediately submitted to the OIC secretariat for
consideration," he said.
The Philippine government maintains it has lived up to the
provisions of the 1996 peace pact, the centerpiece of which is
the creation of a Muslim autonomous region in the southern island
of Mindanao.
MNLF leader Nur Misuari however last year accused the
government of reneging on certain provisions of the peace accord
and eventually led a bloody but failed rebellion in his island
stronghold of Jolo.
More than 100 people were killed in the uprising, which was
crushed by government forces and forced Misuari to flee to
Malaysia. He was later arrested by Malaysian authorities and
returned to Manila, where he is in jail on charges of rebellion.
Ermita also reported that the OIC welcomed the ceasefire
signed between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front
(MILF) last year and urged all Islamic relief and charitable
organizations to extend humanitarian assistance to the troubled
south.
The MILF splintered from the MNLF in the late 1970s and was
excluded from the 1996 peace accord.