ZAMBOANGA CITY, 22 October 2003 — Abu Sayyaf bandits are now holding two Filipinos and four Indonesian nationals kidnapped by gunmen in a tourist resort in Malaysia, sources in the southern Philippines said last night.
Ten gunmen raided the Borneo Paradise Eco-Farm resort in Kunak in Lahad Datu town in Sabah, on Oct. 5 and kidnapped the six workers after finding no Western holiday-makers there.
The hostages are reportedly being held by rebels led by Commander Idris, a sub-leader and brother-in-law of Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani, in the southern Philippine province of Tawi-Tawi.
Tawi-Tawi is just 5 hours by boat from Jolo Island — a traditional stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, blamed for the spate of terrorism and kidnappings of foreigners and wealthy Filipino traders in the region.
Philippine and Malaysian authorities have earlier suspected the Abu Sayyaf rebels, whose group is linked to Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda terror network, to be behind the raid after they sped off toward the southern Philippines. But Sabah police officials later said the attack could also be the handiwork of Malaysian pirates with links to the Abu Sayyaf.
An unnamed Malaysian negotiator from Sandakan — who represents the victims’ families — has arrived in Tawi-Tawi and is directly negotiating with Abu Sayyaf emissaries for the release of the hostages, a source in the province said.
It was not immediately known how much ransom the rebels were demanding from the families. But Malaysian authorities have confirmed that the kidnappers demanded 60 million ringgits from Kuala Lumpur, the resort owner and the families of the hostages, in exchange for the safe release of all the victims.
The Philippine military maintains that the kidnappers and their hostages are still in Sabah after security forces found no trace of the victims in Jolo.
Manila also has a strict no-ransom policy, but it allowed Libya and Malaysia to negoatiate wit the Abu Sayyaf for the release of 24 mostly Asian and Western tourists kidnapped by rebels from the Sabah’s resort islands of Pulau Sipadan and Pulau Pandanan in 2000 in a daring cross-border raids.
As much as $15 million had been reportedly paid by negotiators to the Abu Sayyaf rebels, who used the money to purchase weapons and finance their violent activities in the southern Philippines.
The Abu Sayyaf originally was fighting for the establishment of an Islamic state, but resorted to banditry and terrorism. Its founder Abubakar Abdurajak Janalani, was killed in a shoot-out with police in Basilan island in 1998. His younger brother, Khadaffy Janjalani, who was a former government “deep penetration agent,” took over as the new leader of the group.
But Janjalani’s death has fragmented the Abu Sayyaf into several smaller groups and most of its members have engaged in kidnap-for-ransom activities. Others have either joined or forged alliances with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country’s largest separatist rebel group, the Abu Sufia, a terror group based in Central Mindanao; or and Pentagon kidnap gang.
The United States last year included the Abu Sayyaf in its list of foreign terrorist organizations, alongside the Al-Qaeda network and the Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiya.
