Gov't identifies Sayyaf captors

The government released yesterday the names of five leaders of the Muslim extremist Abu Sayyaf group holding 21 mostly foreign hostages in the southern Philippines.

Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado told a media briefing that each of the Abu Sayyaf leaders was holding four to five hostages.

They split up after clashes with the military which had cordoned off their jungle hideout in Jolo island.

The hostages comprise nine Malaysians, a German family of three, two French nationals, two Finnish men, a South African couple and a Lebanese woman, along with two Filipinos.

They were taken to Jolo from the Malaysian island resort of Sipadan off Borneo on Easter Sunday.

Mercado identified the Abu Sayyaf leaders holding the hostages as:

* Mujib Susukan, the leader of the Muslim extremist group in Jolo. Mercado said Susukan had been slightly injured in a firefight with government troops on Wednesday, but denied reports he had been killed.

Police and military reports say he was active in a kidnapping-for-ransom racket in Mindanao for years before becoming affiliated with the Abu Sayyaf. He was involved in the abduction of three foreign nuns in the early 1990s.

* Ghalib Andang, also known as Commander Robot, a former member of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). He left the group in the early 1980s when MNLF chairman Nur Misuari began negotiating for peace with the government.

Andang turned to banditry, including kidnapping for ransom, and joined the Abu Sayyaf in the late 1980s. He was blamed for the 1998 abduction of two Hong Kong men and a Malaysian. The three were released after an undisclosed ransom was paid.

* "Doctor Abu," also known as Abdin Jundain. He provides first aid to the Abu Sayyaf members when they are wounded.

* Sajid Hayudini, also known as Suaid Hayudini. He is suspected of being behind the 1997 killing of the Jolo Bishop Benjamin de Jesus.

* Radullan Sahiron, believed by the police and the military to have taken part in the attack on the largely Christian town of Ipil in 1995 where more than 50 people were killed.

He is also believed to have worked with Andang in the abduction of the two Hong Kong men and the Malaysian fishery worker. --