COTABATO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 4, 2012) – Philippine Muslim rebels warned government troops searching for a kidnapped Australian man in the southern Basilan province to stay away from near their camps to avoid clashes.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which is currently negotiating peace with Manila, said army soldiers were spotted near rebel camps. “We have reports that soldiers are near our areas and we don’t want any unnecessary conflict,” Mohagher Iqbal, the Front’s deputy chairman and chief peace negotiator, told the Mindanao Examiner.
As many as 2,000 soldiers in Basilan are searching for Warren Rodwell, 53, who was kidnapped by gunmen disguised as policemen from his home in Zamboanga Sibugay’s Ipil town on December 5.
The MILF, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, has offered Manila to help rescue Rodwell. The Filipino government and the MILF forged an agreement in 2004 that paved the way for rebel forces through the ad-hoc joint action group to help authorities hunt down terrorists and criminal elements in areas where the rebel group is actively operating.
Police and military said Rodwell, a former Australian army soldier, is being held by the Abu Sayyaf, a small but the most notorious terrorist group blamed for the spate of bombings and kidnappings in the troubled South.
The Philippine military said the search for Rodwell will continue. “The operation is going on and if there is a need to coordinate with the ad-hoc joint action group the military will course this request to the ad-hoc joint action group,” Army Lt. Col. Randolph Cabangbang, a spokesman for the Western Mindanao Command, said in a phone interview.
Iqbal said he will meet with the MILF ad-hoc joint action group headed by lawyer Abdul Dataya to discuss the progress and efforts in recovering Rodwell. “I will meet with them and see how we can help resolve this crisis,” he said.
Army Brig. Gen. Allan Luga, head of the government ad-hoc joint action group, said they are in close coordination with the MILF counterpart. “We have been closely coordinating all efforts to avoid problems on the ground and so far we see no problems and we are monitoring the situation in Basilan,” he said in a separate interview.
Authorities said the Australian adventurer is being held by Puruji Indama, a notorious terrorist commander also blamed for the July 2011 kidnappings of a US woman Gerfa Lunsmann and her son, Kevin Eric and Filipino nephew Romnick Jakaria in Zamboanga City.
The trio was freed separately after paying ransoms to the Abu Sayyaf.
Rodwell, a prolific world traveler and English teacher in China, married Filipina Miraflor Gutang, 27, in June this year in Ipil town after they met through the internet.
The kidnappers have reportedly demanded an initial P1 million (roughly AUD 22,600) ransom as payment for the “proof of life” and to cover Rodwell’s “board and lodging” expenses.
Police said the kidnappers sent four photographs of Rodwell, believed taken in Basilan, and showed the former Sydney man cuffed on his left wrist and a wound on his right hand.
Gutang appealed to the kidnappers to free Rodwell, saying he is not rich and ill, but she did not elaborate on his condition.
The MILF has in the past repeatedly ordered its 12,000-strong mujahidin to fight kidnapping-for-ransom activities in Mindanao. It previously helped in rescuing many Filipino and foreign kidnapped victims in the restive region and provided the Philippine government with a list of names of suspected Jemaah Islamiya militants hiding in Mindanao.
Iqbal said the MILF is ready and willing to help in the rescue efforts in Basilan, but the Philippine and Australian governments have made no efforts to contact them to seek help in the safe recovery of Rodwell.
“There is a mechanism to all these through the ad-hoc joint action group, but the Philippine government and even the Australian embassy have made no efforts to contact us and work together with Philippine authorities to get back Warren Rodwell,” he said.
But police and military have linked some of its rogue commanders and members to the spate of kidnappings in the South. And authorities also implicated a senior rebel leader Barahama Ali in the kidnapping of Rodwell, an accusation strongly denied by the MILF.
Zamboanga Sibugay Governor Rommel Jalosjos, who worked for years as chef in Australia, has imposed a news blackout on the kidnapping at the request of the Australian embassy which earlier formed a consular task force to deal with the Rodwell case.
The Abu Sayyaf has contacted Jalosjos twice and asked him to negotiate Rodwell’s safe release, but the Australian embassy wanted a professional police negotiator to handle talks for his freedom. The Australian Federal Police is also closely monitoring the progress of Rodwell’s negotiations. (Mindanao Examiner)
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