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.