JOSE TORRES JR., GMANews.TV
01/17/2009 | 10:40 PM
MANILA, Philippines - The abduction of three personnel of the International Committee on the Red Cross has once again led authorities to hunt alleged Abu Sayyaf bandits, the usual suspects in almost all incidents of kidnappings in the southern Philippines.
There was no immediate confirmation from the bandit group whether it was indeed behind the abduction. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front reported that the victims were in the custody of a certain Kumander Al-Badir Parad in Talipao, Sulu.
The Philippine military, however, refused to divulge information supposedly to ensure that its operation is "not compromised and that the safety of the victims is not jeopardized."
The abduction of the Red Cross personnel was the most high-profile kidnapping of foreign national since 2001, when the bandits snatched nearly two dozen tourists from a resort, including three Americans.
One of the Americans was beheaded, a second was killed during a military operation and the third was rescued. The incident prompted Washington to deploy troops in Mindanao, but they are prohibited from joining combat operations.
American soldiers were providing noncombat "assistance and advice" to Philippine forces on the current kidnapping, news reports said quoting a US military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Once again, the bandit group that has been linked by both the Philippine government and the media to the international terror group al-Qaeda is hogging the headlines. Experts, however, have said there was "little tangible evidence" of such a link from the mid-1990s, although there might be attempts in recent years.
Abu Sayyaf's birthThe trail of the Abu Sayyaf led the government in the past to hunt for alleged foreign terrorists and a search for clues outside the country. But the roots of the problem are deep in the southern Philippines.
The Abu Sayyaf Group or the Al-Harakatul Islamiyah was born in the province of Basilan, a collection of islands and islets at the southern tip of the Philippine archipelago.
Basilan used to be a netherworld intermittently lit by the fires of war between families, between tribes, between natives and colonialists, between people and government. Though surrounded by an abundant sea and boasting fertile land and virgin forests, the province used to be among the poorest in the country.
The root of the problem in Basilan is land. While Moros constitute 71 percent of the population, Christians own 75 percent of the land. Compounding the land problem, traders from neighboring provinces control 75 percent of business.
At the turn of the century, corporations such as Sime-Darby and Menzi controlled the land, planting it to rubber, coffee, coconut, African palm oil and pepper -- all for export.
The land has since been broken up with the passage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law. Some 17,900 hectares of agricultural estates above 50 hectares have been titled and distributed to some 50,450 farmer-beneficiaries who have organized themselves into cooperatives.
Most of the agrarian reform beneficiaries, however, are Visayan settlers, who were brought to the island by the American firms they worked for early in this century. The law has virtually bypassed the native Muslim Yakan population, which comprise 70 percent of the population.
Christian settlers, however, said nobody is to blame for the situation except the natives themselves who failed to develop the land and sold it to the Christians. Added to the sorry state of things was the failure of past government administrations to address the problem of poverty and inequality in the south.
The clannish attitude of politicians and residents has tied down development efforts. Progress is shackled by the petty politics of various interest groups, which is in turn rooted in the long history of family feuds, clan conflicts and ideological rivalry.
Attempt at terrorWhen Khaddafy Janjalani went to Camp Crame in 1995 to negotiate for his elder brother's surrender, he was not very optimistic. He really did not expect Abduradjak Abubakar Janjalani, founder of the Abu Sayyaf Group, would give himself up to authorities.
Khaddafy was right. Abdurajak chose to face military bullets than surrender to the authorities. In 1998, after years of dodging military bombs, Abdurajak Janjalani was killed in an encounter with government troops.
Six years after his visit to the Philippine National Police headquarters in Quezon City, Khaddafy Janjalani, chose the same path his brother earlier took. He chose to fight it out with government forces until his death during a military encounter in Sulu in 2006.
The Abu Sayyaf under Khaddafy's leadership became a kidnap-for-ransom gang with an extremist view of Islam. Perhaps, it was far from what his elder brother, the founder of the group, imagined it would become.
Khaddafy Janjalani took on his elder brother footsteps after Abdurajak died in 1998. But unlike his brother, who was described as a charismatic leader, Khaddafy was not eloquent.
Abdurajak Janjalani, who founded the Abu Sayyaf in 1991, used to be with the Moro National Liberation Front. He decided to leave the group and distanced himself from the MNLF, particularly in the interpretation of jihad (holy war), after having gone to the Middle East for a four-year study of Islam.
The charismatic young leader believed the term "revolution" is not mentioned in the Qur'an. Abdurajak believed that the command of Allah is to wage a jihad and not a revolution. And that if one is to win in a jihad, it should be because one follows the laws of Islam, specifically the Qur'an from beginning to end.
Abdurajak was able to convince a lot of young Muslims with his preachings in Basilan. His group was initially welcomed with much enthusiasm by the Muslim communities. He was seen as a modern-day missionary.
As a student in the Middle East, Abdurajak was influenced by radical-minded Muslims. His ideas were later reflected in his speeches after the formation of the Abu Sayyaf. He said he wanted the group to have a political aim, that is, to set up an independent Islamic state in Mindanao and to implement the Shariah (Islamic law).
Unfortunately, however, Abdurajak was not able to match his rhetoric with deeds. His group, the Abu Sayyaf, began to practice an extremist version of Islam. Abdurajak was also lured by quick military successes and easy money. He approved of the kidnapping of Christians that went on from 1992 to 1994.
When he died in 1998, his group appeared to have lost its political ideals.
Later, under Khaddafy Janjalani's leadership, the Abu Sayyaf was out of control. A lot of Muslim scholars believe Khaddafy lacked the leadership qualities his brother had. The younger Janjalani was far from the leader that his brother was.
And the difference is stark and telling: Abdurajak went to Libya to study, while Khaddafy studied in Marawi City. In 1992, a year after Abdurajak formed the Abu Sayyaf Group, Khaddafy was still studying computers at a school in Zamboanga City. He was an inactive member of the Abu Sayyaf because Abdurajak was his elder brother.
While Abdurajak was quick in making decisions for the Abu Sayyaf, Khaddafy needed consultants and advisers to help him lead the group.
But it was during Khaddafy's time as Abu Sayyaf leader when the group grew in number. From just around 650 members in the early 1990s, the Abu Sayyaf is believed to have grown to almost 3,000 fighters in 2001.
A lot of people, especially in far-flung areas, sympathize with the group.
But as their number grew, the violence they wrought on their target also worsened. Even without a central command, the group grew stronger and was believed to have renewed links with international terror groups and established connections with rouge elements of the military and the police who sold arms to the group.
Investigations into these allegations did not prosper.
Hunt goes onDespite the death of key leaders of the bandit group - the Janjalanis, Abu Sabaya, Hamsiraji Sali, and Abu Sulaiman - the Abu Sayyaf continued to be in the limelight because of the violence and incidents of abduction attributed to them by authorities.
The group has been blamed to be behind the bombing of an inter-island ferry in 2004 that killed more than a hundred people. The bandits were also believed to have sheltered Indonesian extremists who were behind the Bali bombings.
The "frequency and lethality" of the Abu Sayyaf attacks, however, declined since 2007 because of the death of its leaders, the Combating Terrorism Center at the US Military Academy in West Point reported last year.
The hunt, however, continues to this day with one-armed rebel leader Radullan Sahiron still reported alive in Sulu, Isnilon Hapilon in Basilan, and Umbra Jumdail, alias Abu Pula and Albader Parad still roaming the jungles of Sulu. -
GMANews.TV
