ZAMBOANGA CITY, 8 December 2004 — Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) forces have launched a new manhunt against Abu Sayyaf members to prove their commitment to peace, the separatist group’s spokesman said on Monday.
Eid Kabalu said their forces were under orders to go after Khadaffy Janjalani and his followers in central Mindanao, where they were reported to have gone months ago to escape pursuing government troops in nearby Basilan Island.
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff Gen. Efren Abu on Monday said intelligence reports revealed that Janjalani is hiding in a known stronghold of the MILF, the country’s largest separatist Muslim rebel group negotiating peace with the Arroyo government.
Abu said the Abu Sayyaf leader is hiding in areas protected by a cease-fire between government and rebel forces.
Kabalu said the MILF is not coddling Abu Sayyaf members and the arrest order against Janjalani and his followers were in compliance with an agreement it signed with the government peace panel in May 2002.
“MILF forces have been ordered to hunt down and arrest Khadaffy Janjalani and members of the Abu Sayyaf group should they enter our territories. The MILF is helping the government fight terrorism and criminalities because of an agreement we signed with the government peace panel in May 2002,” Kabalu told Arab News.
Under the agreement, government and MILF forces would put up an ad-hoc joint action group to run after lawless elements.
General Abu acknowledged that the MILF had been cooperating with the government authorities in their bid to capture Janjalani, who has a 10-million-peso bounty for his capture, dead or alive. The United States also offered up to $10 million for Janjalani’s capture. The military rejected reports by Tawi-Tawi Gov. Sadikul Sahali that Janjalani had fled to Sabah, Malaysia, to escape a government pursuers.
