NO PRISONER - MOHAMMAD WHO?
Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA)
officials expressed puzzlement yesterday over the “strange” demand of Abu Sayyaf
leaders for the release of an 85-year-old Filipino man from a Malaysian jail.
A ranking DFA diplomat said they had no
record of any prisoner named Mohammad Aklan, a claim echoed by Malaysian officials who
also asked to remain unidentified.
The official also hinted that the man named
Aklan could be just a smokescreen for a totally different rebel goal.
“The
identity of Aklan is the key to what the kidnappers are really up to,” the DFA source
said.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar
also rejected the rebels’ alleged demand for a prisoner swap—eight Malaysian
hostages for Aklan—and said his country did not hold any political prisoners.
Ghalib Andang a.k.a Commander Robot,
however, did not link Aklan’s freedom to the release of any hostages, Sulu officials
said. Nor did the guerrilla leader explain the importance of Aklan, reportedly jailed in
Kotakinabalu, the capital of Sabah state.
“I don’t see any reason why there
should be a swap,” Syed said.
“We don’t have any political
prisoners in Malaysia. If a foreigner is arrested for a crime, he is charged and sentenced
in a court of law and serves the sentence according to process of the law,” Syed said
on the sidelines of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) foreign ministers
meeting.
A Malaysian Embassy official said Deputy
Chief of Mission, Sharim Almajed Hashim, flew to Zamboanga City yesterday, but did not
give details.
DFA officials said Malaysia would have sole
discretion on the freedom of the alleged prisoner due to the lack of a bilateral
agreement.
But they stressed that the Consular
Assistance Division found no file on Aklan, raising the possibility that he be one of the
thousands of undocumented Filipinos facing immigration cases for overstaying and illegal
entry.
“To demand the exchange of the
hostages, whom they managed to keep for two months, for one person who could merely be
facing an immigration case, is such an easy concession,” the DFA official said.
“It’s a mystery. There’s
something more to this,” he pointed out.
The Abu Sayyaf has been know for bizarre
demands, the latest being the scrapping of Christmas celebrations and Junior-Senior prom
rites in Sulu high schools.
These demands were raised when education
officials tried to plead for the freedom of two Basilan teachers and one student now held
for four months.
The rebels are also holding in Sulu 20 Asian
and western hostages—eight other Malaysians, three Germans, two French nationals, two
South Africans, two Finns, two Filipinos and a Lebanese.
-- Charmaine
Deogracias
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