Muslim Gunmen Take Scores Hostage in Philippines
November 26, 2001 10:03 PM ET
By Erik de Castro
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (Reuters) - Muslim gunmen loyal to a rebellious governor took scores of civilians hostage in the southern Philippines on Tuesday after they were pounded by helicopter gunships and bomber planes, Red Cross officials said.
Residents in their night-clothes, many barefoot and muddy from slips and falls in the dark, fled in terror from the pre-dawn fighting on the outskirts of Zamboanga between the military and followers of Nur Misuari, witnesses said.
Red Cross officials and residents said at least 160 people, including women and children, were seized.
Repeated automatic and machine-gun bursts and mortar shell explosions jarred the city of 750,000 people awake around 3 a.m.
By dawn, the gunmen had broken out of a complex of buildings they were holed up in to take the hostages and force an uneasy stand-off with the military, residents and officials said.
Local radio said at least one civilian was killed and seven were wounded in cross-fire. There was no independent confirmation.
"I saw gunmen right outside my house," said one woman, holding a baby in her arms and shaking with fear.
A Reuters photographer saw four gunmen in fatigues holding civilians in front of them as human shields as they retreated from troops.
Military officials said troops used helicopter gunships, light bomber planes and mortars to flush out guerrillas entrenched on a hilltop overlooking the mostly Christian city.
Soldiers in trucks and armored personnel carriers were seen rushing toward the hilltop. Tanks with fitted machine-guns were also brought in.
The officials said the fighting was between troops and a group of followers of Misuari, a former Muslim rebel chief who took up arms against the government again last week.
Misuari was arrested in neighboring Malaysia at the weekend. On November 19, hundreds of his followers attacked a military post on the southern island of Jolo and at least 160 people were killed in the subsequent fighting.
ULTIMATUM IGNORED
Misuari's followers in Zamboanga, based in a cluster of buildings on the hilltop outside the city, have previously been quiet but had made no attempt to hide their heavy weaponry. Military officials said they were given an ultimatum to surrender on Monday which most ignored.
"We must assert government authority here," Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes told local radio after the fighting broke out. "They have been threatening the city."
In one part of the city, the gunmen had tied some 20 civilians together and had taken positions behind them.
One woman, 63-year-old teacher Celestian Salcasantos, told reporters she was let go by the guerrillas to inform troops they had taken 60 people, including women and children, and were ready to negotiate safe passage.
"My husband and my son and so many others are hostage," she said. "I am asking for your help, your prayers so that peace will prevail."
Red Cross officials said about 100 people were in guerrilla captivity in another part of the city.
"All they want is to be able to get out safely," said one man, Bong Bue, who escaped from the guerrillas but left behind four of his children. He said the gunmen threatened to kill the hostages if the military did not allow them to leave.
Authorities closed down Zamboanga airport and canceled all flights from the city as the fighting continued. In Manila, security at government buildings, the suburban railway and oil depots was strengthened.
Misuari's followers started last week's fighting in an attempt to disrupt polls to decide his replacement as governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). The elections were held on Monday.
Misuari had denounced the elections as violating the 1996 accord under which he had given up the rebellion in exchange for limited autonomy.
The voting across the five provinces and one city comprising the ARMM was mostly peaceful. Results are likely to be known by the end of the week.
Zamboanga, the headquarters of the Philippines' southern military command and the largest city in the area, is not part of ARMM but islands to the south, including Jolo, are.
Misuari was head of the Moro National Liberation Front, whose guerrillas were largely amalgamated into the military and the police after the peace accord. The rival Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) then took over the fight for an Islamic homeland, but the government forged a cease-fire with the group this summer.
The government has however made no attempt to reach a deal with the smaller but more radical Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, which it denounces as a group of bandits.
The group, which the United States has said is linked to Saudi born militant Osama bin Laden, is holding an American couple hostage on Basilan, an island just south of Zamboanga. |
