Six kidnappers surrender in RP, military reports
Six kidnappers surrender in RP, military reports
JOLO, Philippines (AFP): Six members of a Muslim extremist group holding five hostages in the southern Philippines have surrendered amid a relentless army assault, the military said on Monday.
Three Abu Sayyaf members turned in their rifles in Luuk on the southern island of Jolo on Saturday and notified authorities that more of their group wanted to surrender, Brig. Gen. Generoso Senga told DZMM radio.
Three other guerrillas followed suit that same night with more expressing a desire to do the same.
"Some of these (who want to surrender) are prominent personalities, but we would not like to discuss this information" at this time, Senga said.
The government three weeks ago launched a massive military assault to rescue 19 hostages still held by the Abu Sayyaf in Jolo from a five-month kidnapping spree.
Twelve Filipino Christian preachers were rescued last week while two French journalists managed to escape three days into the assault.
Five hostages -- American Jeffrey Schilling, Filipino Roland Ullah, and Malaysians Kan Wei Chong, Joseph Ongkinoh and Mohamed Noor Sulaiman -- remain in rebel hands.
A military source in Jolo identified one of those who surrendered as Commander Abdul Baki, a trusted ally of Abu Sayyaf senior leader Galib Andang, popularly known as Commander Robot.
Baki and his group were reportedly watching over 12 Filipino Christian preachers when troops swooped on their lair and rescued the captives last week, the source said.
Among those who reportedly want to surrender is Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sabaya, whose faction holds Schilling, reports said.
Senga said "our troops are a bit tired," 24 days into an operation to destroy the self-proclaimed Muslim independence fighters and rescue the remaining hostages.
But he said "these positive developments resulting from their actions are giving them encouragement."
The military says at least 129 gunmen of the 1,200-member Abu Sayyaf have been killed, while admitting to having lost eight men, including three civilian spies.
Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado said Manila was open to talks with the rebels to free the captives but stressed there would be no let up in military operations.
Malaysian envoy to Manila Mohammad Arshad Hussein meanwhile said Kuala Lumpur had received word their nationals had been spotted and they were expecting positive developments in the next few days.
But a statement by the Malaysian embassy released later said Kuala Lumpur "is increasingly concerned for the safety of the three Malaysians" as it expressed hope the operations "would be over as quickly as possible."
The three Malaysians were snatched Sept. 10 by Abu Sayyaf gunmen from the Malaysian resort of Pandanan, nearly five months after the same group snatched 21 Asian and Western hostages from the nearby resort of Sipadan.
All but one of the Sipadan hostages, Ullah, have been freed after huge ransom payments.
Officials said about 82,000 people have been displaced during the military operation -- more than a fifth of the population of the 897 square-kilometer Jolo island.
The spokesman for the 5,000-member Jolo military task force, Major Alberto Gepilano, told AFP that some soldiers had told their superiors they were "very tired" and wanted to go on vacation.
However, Philippine security forces have been told to brace for the possibility that the country's largest Muslim insurgent group will step up attacks during a fact-finding mission by the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) next week.
A team from the 56-member international Islamic body will conduct a four-day probe from Oct. 16 into the implementation of a 1996 peace pact signed between Manila and a former Muslim rebel group, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
The mission, to be headed by Indonesia, will also look into the living conditions of the large Muslim minority in the main southern island of Mindanao.