Indon cops to probe Abu abduction in RP

JAKARTA – Indonesian police are planning to send two officers to the Philippines to seek information on a report that four Indonesian boat crewmen had been abducted by the Abu Sayyaf rebel group, national police chief General Da’i Bachtiar said yesterday.

"We will dispatch two police officers to the Philippines," Bachtiar told journalists after an anti-drug rally in Central Jakarta, the state Antara news agency reported.

Bachtiar did not give the name and rank of the officers and did not say when they will depart.

But he said that the officers will be sent not to intervene in the investigation by the Philippine police but just to seek more complete information on the abductions.

He also said that the national police have already held communications with their Philippine counterparts regarding the abductions.

"We cannot interfere in the investigation but in the Philippines, our officers will seek more complete information," Bachtiar said.

Four Indonesians who were part of the crew of a coal-carrying tugboat were on July 17 kidnapped by armed men believed to be from an Abu Sayyaf faction in the southern island of Sulu.

One was reported to have escaped and has been rescued by the military in the Philippines.

The three others are reported to be held by the kidnappers in Luuk town in Sulu.

But Armed Forces Southern Command (Southcom) chief Maj. Gen. Ernesto Carolina said yesterday the military is still uncertain whether the Abu Sayyaf had taken hostage the three Indonesians.

"We could not tell who are really holding them hostage now," he said. "Although we are already 80 percent sure that they could now be in the hands of an Abu Sayyaf leader in Sulu who has about 10 members."

Carolina said tugboat captain Muntu Jacobus Winowatan, chief officer Julkipili, and chief engineer Piter Lerrech are being still being held captive by an unidentfied group but that the fourth hostage, Ferdinan Joel, escaped and was found by residents in a barangay near Luuk in Sulu.

"We could not tell yet if the captors were plain bandits or whatever group," he said. "We have only been basing our conclusion on what Joel has been telling us in his testimony. But the problem is, we could not rely so much on the accuracy of the matching of photos because its leader resembled the features of one of the Abu Sayyaf leaders whose photos were presented to him."

So far there has not been no demand yet for any ransom for the three Indonesians and that the group holding them has not yet communicated with the authorities, Carolina added.

Joel has reportedly been providing authorities with sketches of the armed men who had taken him captive.

Joel told investigators their leader resembles one of the Abu Sayyaf leaders whose photos had been shown to him.

Earlier, Indonesian Vice Consul in Davao City Johanes Manginsela said his government would abide by the Philippine government’s no-ransom policy.— AFP , Edith Regalado