Sabaya's threat
Sabaya's threat
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Asia News Network
Manila
After all the terrible things it had done, it looked as if the
Abu Sayyaf had exhausted its capacity to shock people and make
them recoil in revulsion, horror and anger. However, one call
from its spokesperson to a radio station in Zamboanga City last
Wednesday showed once again how well the group practices the
craft of terrorism.
The government can "start looking for the dead bodies," Abu
Sabaya announced after declaring that the Abu Sayyaf had closed
the door to negotiations for the release of two American
missionaries and a Filipino nurse the group has been holding
hostage for almost a year now. He said the Abu Sayyaf decided to
withdraw its offer to negotiate after the government flatly
rejected it.
The Abu Sayyaf had earlier announced that it was willing to
discuss a "last deal" with Presidential Adviser for Special
Concerns Norberto Gonzales, Governor Parouk Hussin of the
autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao and a former Malaysian
senator. Malacaqang spurned the offer, saying it was sticking to
its policy of not negotiating with kidnappers particularly in
regard to ransom payments.
Exhibiting the twisted logic typical of a criminal mind,
Sabaya pointed out that the two-million-dollar ransom his group
was demanding was nothing compared to the billions of pesos being
spent for the joint Philippine-U.S. military exercises being
conducted in Basilan.
Anyone who looks at the Abu Sayyaf's record of cruelty and
sadism will have to take this new threat seriously. The group has
been known to carry out its most outrageous threats. For
instance, in June last year it announced that it would give the
head of another American hostage, Guillermo Sobero, as an
Independence Day gift to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Weeks
later, government troops found the severed head of Sobero.
Several Filipinos the group had taken hostage while trying to
evade pursuing troops have also been beheaded.
Still the situation is not completely hopeless. Sabaya himself
has shown why. When asked if the Abu Sayyaf was ready to execute
the American couple, Martin and Gracia Burnham, Sabaya conceded
that "holding the hostages is more advantageous to us compared to
the two million dollars" it was demanding as ransom.
And how can keeping the hostages alive work to the Abu
Sayyaf's advantage? For one thing, the self-styled Islamic
revolutionary group believes the drawn-out hostage crisis is a
continuing demonstration not only of the ineptness of the
Philippine military but also of America's powerlessness in
fighting Islamist terrorism. And to their own mind, this makes
the Abu Sayyaf members bigger heroes not only at home but in the
entire Muslim world.
The second reason is even more practical and compelling: They
have to keep the hostages alive to stay alive themselves. They
have used their hostages as "human shields" before to escape from
tight situations, and they plan to continue to do so. Sabaya
hinted as much when he said that if they perceive the odds to
have turned badly against them, then they may have to "say
goodbye" to the two Americans.
If the choice is between money and their lives, it seems that
even the bandits masquerading as freedom fighters will decide
like their hostages do.