Capture of Brutal Kidnapper Boosts Wider Campaign Against Terrorists
By: Administrative Account | Source: CNSNews.com
December 9, 2003 11:37AM EST

By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com Pacific Rim Bureau Chief
December 08, 2003

Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - Boosted by the capture of a top figure in the notorious kidnap-for-ransom gang, Philippines President Gloria Arroyo has vowed to crush what remains of the Abu Sayyaf Group as well as an even more dangerous terrorist group operating in her country, Jemaah Islamiah (JI).

Both groups have close links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network.

Ghalib Andang, also known as Commander Robot, was caught after a firefight with soldiers, which left him wounded in both legs.

Arroyo hailed his arrest, saying the military was "determined to finish the job against the Abu Sayyaf even as we pursue a second front against the clandestine cells of Jemaah Islamiah."

Arroyo's government would continue to cooperate closely with Filipino communities and "our global allies in finishing off terror everywhere."

Andang's capture in the southern Mindanao region - where U.S. forces have been training Filipinos in anti-terror tactics - brings to four the number of top Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) leaders still at large.

The U.S. government has offered rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to the capture of ASG leader Khadaffi Janjalani and his lieutenants, all of whom have been implicated in kidnappings and murders of foreigners - including Americans - and Filipinos in recent years.

Abu Sayyaf ("Father of the Executioner") was set up in the early 1990s with direct input and financial help from bin Laden, according to top researchers.

The group, whose numbers seldom exceeded several hundred, claimed to be fighting the Manila government for an Islamic state in the south of the predominantly Catholic Philippines.

But its targets have mostly been civilians, including Catholic priests and nuns, Filipino schoolchildren and adults, and foreign tourists.

The group is most widely known for two hostage-taking episodes. In April 2000, 21 people including European and other foreign tourists were seized from a resort in neighboring Malaysia.

They were taken by speedboat to the southern Philippines, where their captors held them for months, releasing them in batches over the following year after the Libyan government paid a reported $1 million each for their freedom.

The second incident saw terrorists kidnap three Americans - Christian missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham from Kansas and Californian tourist Guillermo Sobero - and 17 Filipinos from another resort in 2001.

Sobero was decapitated, and Martin Burnham died during a military operation which led to the rescue of his wife after 376 days in captivity.

Critics of the deal to pay huge ransoms for the first group of hostages pointed to the second raid as the inevitable result of giving in to the terrorists' demands.

Andang is accused of having led the 13-strong group which carried out the 2000 raid.

Former hostages have described him as brutal and deranged, accusing him of raping female captives and beheading a hostage after a delay in ransom payments.

Philippines military officials say he had at least three wives, one of whom was a teenage girl he had kidnapped.

He also seized journalists covering the hostage situation, only releasing them after ransoms were handed over.

Armed Forces chief Gen. Narciso Abaya told reporters Andang had been planning another kidnapping at the time of his capture, but did not elaborate.

JI a growing threat

Another senior military officer, Lieut. Col. Daniel Lucero, said he hoped Andang would disclose information about Abu Sayyaf links to Jemaah Islamiah (JI), a regional terrorist group which has been described as al Qaeda's proxy in South-East Asia.

JI carried out the deadly bombing of nightclubs on the Indonesian island of Bali in October 2002.

Members of the network have been caught in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, and with the noose tightening and regional counter-terror cooperation improving, there have been fears that JI would go to ground in the lawless Mindanao region, from where they would plan further attacks.

Arroyo last October went on television to warn that JI was now considered the greatest threat to stability in the Philippines.

That same month, President Bush said during a brief visit to Manila the U.S. would help the government bring terrorists to justice.

Arroyo said afterwards her government would allow the U.S. to play a more direct role in the campaign against terrorists, to the degree allowed by a constitution that bans foreign combat troops from operating in the country.

Previous U.S. training of Philippines troops has been credited with helping speed up the gradual demise of the ASG.

During the Burnham hostage crisis, the U.S. sent more than 1,000 soldiers for a six-month counter-terrorism exercise in the southern Philippines.

In a subsequent mission, several hundred American troops have been training Filipinos in Mindanao since early last year.

Arroyo's government announced last week that it was lifting a moratorium on the death penalty for those convicted in high-profile kidnapping and drug-related crimes.

Although the Catholic Church and others criticized the move, a Manila newspaper columnist noted Monday that messages responding to the president's decision were running at a ratio of about 50-1 in favor of restoring capital punishment.

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