Abu leader’s offer to yield rejected

The military rejected yesterday the surrender offer of top Abu Sayyaf leader Hamsiraji Sali, who said he would give himself up if the military stopped operations against them.

"If he wants to surrender it should be unconditional. I will not stop any operation against the Abu Sayyaf," said Lt. Gen. Narciso Abaya, chief of the Armed Forces Southern Command, whose troops have been hunting down the Abu Sayyaf. "If he wants to surrender he should not make any demands."

Sali called a television station in Mindanao on Monday and said he wanted to surrender and cooperate with the government. Abaya said he can do that after he faces justice. "There is a warrant for his arrest," he said.

At Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City, Brig. Gen. Pedro Cabuay said the government does not negotiate with terrorists.

"I think the government has been consistent on this, not to entertain terrorists," said Cabuay, Armed Forces deputy chief for civil military operations. "I think that would not stop the military from continuing its operations. That offer is not acceptable."

Sali warned he might change his mind and launch brutal attacks if the military continues operations against them. Cabuay said the military is ready for them.

"What could they do that would be harsher and more cruel? They have practically done everything. They have bombed. They have kidnapped," he said.

Meanwhile, the Office of Muslim Affairs, a government agency, cautioned yesterday the military and the police against accepting Sali’s surrender offer at face value.

"The surrender feeler is a welcome development as this will allow our society a breathing space from the stigma of terrorism, but I hope this is not a matter of strategy to relieve military pressure," Datu Zamzamin Ampatuan, undersecretary for Muslim affairs, told The STAR.

Muslim insurgents in the past would offer to surrender just to get the military off their back. Some would even avail themselves of government amnesty, only to go back later to the hills.

"This is a vicious cycle that has been happening since the 1970s — rebels and bandits surrender but later on resumed their illegal activities," Ampatuan said.

Sali, alias Commander Jose Ramirez, claimed his faction had broken ties with top Abu Sayyaf leader Khaddafi Janjalani because of differences over strategy, views and goals.

Cabuay said the military is verifying Sali’s claim. "I think the situation is becoming precarious for everybody because of the continuing operations of the military. It’s possible that he might be fearing for his life," he said.

A captured Abu Sayyaf member, Kair Muktar, recently told reporters that the group’s leaders were locked in a power struggle following the death of top leader and spokesman Abu Sabaya last June and quarreling over ransom money.

Sali warned he would stage brutal attacks if the military continues its operations against them, which led to the death of one of his men last week.

"If the operations continue, we can be worse than (Abu) Sabaya. You know Sabaya only uses his mouth," he warned, referring to the Abu Sayyaf spokesman whom the military said was killed in a shootout with troops in June.

Sabaya loved the media spotlight and regularly taunted his military pursuers.

Last month, Sali told a radio station that he wanted to surrender and cooperate with the government to help the civilian population of Basilan, where he is based.

The military earlier said Sali’s group was responsible for the abduction of 35 villagers in the town of Lamitan in Basilan in August last year.

Ten villagers were beheaded during a military pursuit while the remaining hostages either escaped or were rescued by soldiers.

Last month, former American hostage Jeffrey Schilling identified Sali as one of his captors at the trial of Abu Sayyaf member Hector Janjalani, younger brother of Khaddafi Janjalani.

Schilling was held hostage for nearly eight months until he was rescued by troops in April 2001.

In May, Washington offered up to $5 million for the capture of one or all of five top Abu Sayyaf leaders – Sali, Janjalani, Sabaya, Abu Sulaiman and Isnilon Hapilon. They were later indicted in absentia by a US grand jury.

The five were wanted for the kidnapping last year of Americans Martin and Gracia Burnham and Guillermo Sobero, who was later beheaded.

Martin Burnham was killed in a June 7 rescue attempt in which Gracia Burnham was wounded but freed.

The Abu Sayyaf styles itself as an Islamic rebel group fighting for an independent Islamic state in Mindanao. It operates in Basilan, Zamboanga del Norte and Sulu provinces.

However, the group is mostly into kidnapping foreigners, including Americans, and Filipino Christians, prompting the government to consider them bandits.

An Abu Sayyaf faction in Sulu, led by Radulan Sahiron, is currently holding hostage four Filipino women and three Indonesian sailors and had demanded P16 million in ransom.

The military launched an operation to rescue the hostages but has, so far, failed to pinpoint their location.

Considered a terrorist group by Washington, the Abu Sayyaf has been linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist network and to the militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, al-Qaeda’s main ally in Southeast Asia based in Indonesia.

It was blamed for a string of bombings in Zamboanga City last month that killed 11 people – including an American soldier and a Filipino marine – and wounded over 160 others.

Earlier this year, about 1,000 US troops spent six months in Basilan holding counter-terrorism exercises with Philippine forces as part of Washington’s global war on terrorism. — With Paolo Romero, Perseus Echeminada