RP asks neighbors to hunt rebel leader

RP asks neighbors to hunt rebel leader

Reuters, Manila

The Philippines said on Friday it had asked Malaysia and Indonesia to help track down a local Muslim leader, whom Manila has blamed for instigating an uprising that killed about 160 people this week.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo told a news conference she had sent word to Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and personally called Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri regarding Misuari.

National Security Adviser Roilo Golez told a separate news conference Manila had asked Kuala Lumpur to arrest and turn over Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) chief Nur Misuari if he was found in Malaysia's Borneo province of Sabah.

Misuari has been on the run since fighting broke out on Monday between his guerrillas and the government.

Misuari gave up life as a guerrilla in the 1970s and 1980s to be governor of four southern mostly Muslim provinces under a 1996 peace accord with Manila.

But Manila says he is rebelling anew after the government set new elections for the governor's post due for next Monday and indicated it would not support him.

Philippine Armed Forces chief Gen. Diomedio Villanueva said on Thursday he believed Misuari had left the Philippines and could have slipped across the Sulu Sea into Sabah, on the north coast of Borneo, en route to the Middle East.

Sabah has long been a haven for illegal immigrants from southern Philippines.

But Malaysia's Brig. Gen. Muhamad Yassin Yahya, who commands an infantry brigade in Sabah, said on Thursday Misuari was not in the north Borneo state.

The Philippines National Security Adviser said Manila had no definite idea where Misuari has fled to.

"There is no definite information on where Misuari is," Golez said. "He is probably still in Jolo (in the southern Philippines) or he could be in Sabah.

"But whatever it is, we have already coordinated with the Malaysian authorities and the indication is that the Malaysian authorities will help us effect the arrest of Misuari, in case he's there in Malaysia," Golez said.

Arroyo, back from an official visit to the United States, said Megawati promised to help in the hunt for Misuari.

"Indonesia is the chairman of the committee of eight that monitors the peace agreement (between the Philippine government and the MNLF) so I called up Megawati and she's very, very supportive and she said let her know what else needs to be done," Arroyo said.

Manila says the fighting between more than 7,000 soldiers and about 600 MNLF gunmen started on Monday when the guerrillas attacked a major army base on the Muslim dominated island of Jolo, 960 km south of Manila.

Misuari was installed as governor of a semi-autonomous Muslim region after signing the 1996 pact ending the MNLF's 24-year revolt for an Islamic state in the south of the mainly Catholic Philippines.

The military dispatched about 1,000 additional soldiers to Jolo on Friday to pursue MNLF fighters and Abu Sayyaf rebels -- another Muslim group which is fighting for a separate Islamic state but whose main activity centers on kidnap for ransom.

"Let us fight and kill, if we must, and defend the advocacy of what is right, good and just," Army Major General Glicerio Sua said at a send-off ceremony for the soldiers at the Philippine Navy port in nearby Zamboanga City.