Philippine Troops Pursue Rebels
By PAT ROQUE, Associated Press Writer
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AP) -
Thousands of Philippine troops pursued fleeing Muslim rebels Saturday and helicopter
gunships strafed their hide-outs from the air. The fate of their 19 hostages, including an
American, was unclear.
The military imposed a news
blackout after the surprise attack aimed at rescuing the hostages held in a remote jungle
on Jolo island. Authorities launched the attack before dawn Saturday following nearly five
months of negotiations with Abu Sayyaf rebels and the reported payment of more than $15
million in ransom for other captives.
President Joseph Estrada said
his patience broke after the rebels, who claim they are fighting for an independent
Islamic state in the southern Philippines, seized a new group of hostages from Malaysia on
Sept. 10.
``We have exhausted all efforts
toward a negotiated settlement,'' he said in a nationally televised speech. ``We will not
allow kidnappers or other lawless elements to mock our laws or control our lives.''
France, Germany and Malaysia
expressed concern about the decision to attack the rebel camps, saying it could endanger
the lives of the hostages.
Various Abu Sayyaf factions are
holding an American Muslim, two French journalists, three Malaysians, a Filipino captured
in April and 12 Filipino Christian evangelists.
A military officer on Jolo said
two rebels were confirmed dead and four injured in Saturday's fighting, but there were no
reports of military casualties. Five injured civilians were being treated at a Jolo
hospital.
Defense Secretary Orlando
Mercado said 17 rebels were captured.
The military was checking
unconfirmed reports that the American, Jeffrey Schilling of Oakland, Calif., was killed
during an escape attempt Friday and that the evangelists were executed by a rebel firing
squad after the military attack began, an official said. The military also was trying to
verify a report that the two French journalists had escaped, said the official, who spoke
on the condition he not be named.
The rebels had earlier
threatened to attack southern Philippine cities and behead Schilling if troops launched an
attack.
Telephone and transportation
links to Jolo were cut, isolating panicked villagers who streamed into the island's
capital and snapped up goods in crowded grocery stores.
Support for a military assault
has soared since the rebels abducted three more people last week from a Malaysian diving
resort - despite their earlier pledge not to seize more captives while negotiations were
underway.
The kidnapping came just one
day after the rebels released four Europeans - the last foreigners from a group of 21
people abducted April 23 from another Malaysian resort.
Estrada, who cut short a visit
to the United States to deal with the crisis, said the continuing abductions showed the
Abu Sayyaf were ``plain terrorists and bandits.''
The military had prepared for
weeks for an assault on the rebel camps. On Friday, Mercado said the armed forces were
``like an arrow drawn against a bow'' waiting for orders to attack.
``Obviously the arrow has been
released,'' he said Saturday. ``We hope it can find its target.''
French President Jacques Chirac
criticized the assault, saying he was concerned it might put the French journalists in
danger.
``The safety of Roland Madura
and Jean-Jacques Le Garrec is France's only priority, and we consider the Philippines
responsible for this,'' Chirac's spokeswoman, Catherine Colonna, said Saturday.
The French Defense Ministry was
in contact with Philippine military leaders, and Defense Minister Alain Richard asked his
U.S. counterpart, William Cohen, to convey France's concerns over the safety of the
hostages to the Philippine government.
During a visit to Manila on
Friday, Cohen had said the United States hoped the hostages could be released peacefully,
but that a decision on whether to use force was up to the Philippines.
Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said he was concerned about the safety of the Malaysian hostages,
but that ``what the Philippine army does against separatist groups or those out to create
chaos in the country is its own responsibility.''
Philippine presidential
spokesman Ricardo Puno echoed that sentiment.
``This is a matter that the
Philippines has to decide on its own,'' Puno said. ``Because after all, when the French
leave, we will be left with the problem here in our country.''
Negotiations for the remaining
hostages had been suspended because of rising tensions among Abu Sayyaf factions over the
division of ransom money from the release of earlier hostages. Negotiators say more than
$15 million in ransom has been paid, about $10 million of it by Libya for 10 Westerners.
Critics had warned that large
ransom payments would encourage new waves of kidnappings in the troubled southern
Philippines, home of the country's Muslim minority.
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