Unease grows as Philippine troops fail to
rescue any hostages
MANILA, Sept 18 (AFP) - Unease
was growing Monday as troops failed to rescue any of the 22 American, French, Malaysian or
Filipino hostages three days into a massive operation in the southern Philippines.
Officials have grudgingly
admitted that the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, exploiting their knowledge of the terrain, have
burrowed deep into the jungle to frustrate the attack on the remote island of Jolo which
started before dawn on Saturday.
They said the guerrillas are
thought to be using the hostages as human shields, but maintained that none have come to
any harm.
Armed forces chief of staff
General Angelo Reyes has said the rebels are believed to be still on Jolo.
Earlier, a senior army
official, speaking on condition of anonymity, had told AFP that at least 70 Abu Sayyaf
gunmen evaded a naval blockade around Jolo and escaped to nearby Basilan island.
Several hundred demonstrators
marched on the presidential palace here Monday, in the first local display of opposition
to President Joseph Estrada's drastic attempt to end the nearly five-month-old hostage
crisis.
France, the only country to
criticise the assault, has kept up the pressure on Manila, insisting that "that the
hostages' safety must remain a priority."
"The ground assault is
still ongoing. The assessment by the military is that it won't take a week," Defense
Secretary Orlando Mercado said Monday.
Reyes said on Sunday that
casualties on both sides were minimal considering the size of the military force.
But he said that
"unfortunately", the gunmen had chosen to yield ground rather than fight a
conventional battle against more than 4,000 troops mustered against them.
The peso and local share prices
mirrored the unease and opened lower Monday.
"The military attack
against the Abu Sayyaf will continue to sideline investors. Market players will adopt a
wait-and-see attitude until the crisis is resolved," said Christopher Canilanza of
brokerage house Orion-Squire Capital.
The assault "should be
positive as finally we see action on the part of government, but I think the uncertainty
is to whether the attack will be successful," said a currency trader at a foreign
bank.
Retired army general Alfredo
Filler, who now runs a private security consultancy, told AFP shortly before the assault
that the Muslim extremist gunmen have "familiarity with the terrain, maybe they have
some supporters within the civilian population."
He added: "The military
option is always a difficult one, especially in this particular case. This is not a
hostage situation where the hostages are confined to a building. They are out there in the
field. Even the military options that you have are limited."
The hostages are believed to be
dispersed over a wide area of Jolo, a tropical jungle-clad island measuring 897 square
kilometers (345 square miles). The mainly Muslim island has been a hotbed of rebellion and
piracy for the past century.
Another retired general,
Senator Rodolfo Biazon, expressed doubt Monday whether the invasion force, called
"Task Force Trident", was adequate.
Biazon, a former Marine general
and military chief of staff, was involved in hunting down the Muslim extremist Moro
National Liberation Front -- which counted among its members relatives of the present-day
Abu Sayyaf -- more than 20 years ago.
Biazon failed to track down
only one group of rebels with eight battalions of men, roughly the same number as the
military are using to hunt several Abu Sayyaf groups.
"What we don't know now
is, do they have enough (troops) to encircle" the Abu Sayyaf, Biazon said.
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