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.