Tensions remain high in southern Philippines

Tensions remain high in southern Philippines

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (Reuter): Police and troops throughout
the tense southern Philippines were at the highest levels of
alert yesterday amid fears of renewed attacks by Moro rebels.

Government forces continued to pursue Abu Sayyaf rebels deep
into the interior of Mindanao island but the army said there was
a chance the fundamentalists, still believed to be holding
hostages, would escape.

"There is always the possibility they are able to look for
exit points," 1st Infantry Division commander Gen. Rene Cardones
told reporters.

Other officers said the further the rebels got from the town
of Ipil, which they devastated in an April 4 raid that killed 53
people, the closer they got to their home areas were it will be
easier for them to go to ground.

The Philippines has thrown some 2,000 troops backed by
helicopters into the seven-day pursuit and killed at least 21
rebels. Five hostages have also died, along with three soldiers
and three militiamen.

Officials say they have proof the Abu Sayyaf is part of an
international network of extremists committed to establishing an
Islamic theocracy in the southern Philippines and using the
country as a springboard into other Southeast Asian nations.

The military in Zamboanga, the main provincial center some 100
kilometers from Ipil, said they had sent a small force to
investigate reported sightings of armed men in a nearby village.

Troops also surrounded a logistics base in Zamboanga city,
which was a possible target of rebel attack.

Suspected Moslem rebels also threw two grenades at a police
station in another village near Zamboanga, but there were no
casualties, police said.

Nervous residents of the Mindanao town of Pagadian also
reported seeing armed men in coastal areas, police said.
Security forces throughout Mindanao island, some 800 kilometers
south of Manila, have been ordered to expect fresh extremist
attacks, especially as Easter approaches.

The Philippines' 65 million people are 80 percent Roman
Catholic with about five million Moslems living mainly in the
south who have for decades complained of discrimination by the
Christian majority.

President Fidel Ramos's government has been holding peace
talks with the mainstream rebel Moro National Liberation Front
(MNLF).

Officials, however, say the Abu Sayyaf and its largely
youthful supporters reject the MNLF as too willing to compromise
on Moslem religious beliefs.

This new breed of rebels share the theology -- as well as
sources of funding -- with fundamentalists in other countries,
they say.

Their goal is to provoke war between Christians and Moslems in
the south as a prelude to setting up a strict Islamic state.