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.