Date: March 2003

A Larger Enemy Than Abu Sayyaf

Muslim leaders in Mindanao have warned against the deployment of US soldiers in the predominantly Muslim-populated province of Sulu, claiming that there was a history of violence between foreign troops and the warriors of the Sulu islands.

Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao Governor, Parouk Hussin, recalled that in 1906 American General Leonard Wood ordered his men to kill thousands of Tausug people in Patikul, Sulu. Hussin, a former commander of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which was the original armed wing of the Muslim insurgency in the south, said that the Tausug people have yet to forget that tarnished account in Philippine history. The proud Tausug people are predominantly Muslim.

Even Sulu Congressman, Hussein Amin, floated the possibility that descendants of those killed by American soldiers in 1906 could seek revenge against the US troops.

In response, Lt. Gen. Narciso Abaya, the commander of the Philippine Army in Mindanao, no witness could testify about the veracity that American soldiers massacred Tausug warriors a century ago. Abaya is a graduate of West Point Academy in the US.

Sulu is the bailiwick of the Muslim rebellion. Rebel groups such as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Abu Sayyaf have merged with the civilian population in the Sulu islands. Spanish troops failed to subdue the islands of Sulu in the three centuries that they occupied the islands of Luzon and Visayas and some parts of Mindanao. Only American troops, after defeating the Spaniards in the Spanish-American war in 1898, were able to include the 1,600-square-kilometer islands of Sulu in the map of the Philippine archipelago.

Under Filipino presidents, decades of armed conflict have limited economic progress in Sulu. It is now considered one of the poorest provinces in the country, with around 68 percent of the population estimated at 620,000 (2000 census) living in poverty.

There could not be a tougher training ground for American troops than Sulu, where thousands of Filipino soldiers have died fighting the Muslim rebels. It is said that the war against Muslim insurgency in southern Philippines has already cost the lives of over 120,000 people.

Reports aired by the American media said that Washington has given its troops the "go" signal to engage in combat operations against the Muslim extremist Abu Sayyaf group in Sulu. While Filipino officials belied the reports, it is not hard to believe that American soldiers would do just that, considering that they are planning to attack Iraq.

Philippine Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said he would meet with US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to thresh out the terms of reference that would govern the conduct of the joint military drills in Sulu. The meeting would determine the exact role of American soldiers in the training drills.

Under the provisions of the Philippine Constitution, US troops would not be allowed to participate in combat operations against Philippine rebels group. But foreign forces are allowed to play a support role to Philippine troops. It was not clarified whether the Philippine troops would launch tactical offensives in Sulu while conducting the military exercises in order to provoke a response that would allow the US forces to join the battle.

Authorities have placed the military and the police in Mindanao on red alert to pacify any hostility emanating from the deployment of American troops in Sulu. There have been intelligence reports that both Muslim extremist MILF and the Abu Sayyaf groups were planning to sow terror activities in the south.

These two groups have both been tagged as "terrorist" organisations. Of the two, the MILF is the much larger. It is known for carrying out bomb attacks and killing innocent Christian civilians in diversionary tactical operations. The Abu Sayyaf, on the other hand, profits from kidnapping foreigners and Filipinos alike. It began as a breakaway faction of the MILF. There are reports that the Abu Sayyaf has links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network and that it has received some funding from Iraq.

Intelligence reports also said that the Abu Sayyaf has deployed some of its men to carry out suicide bomb attacks in urban areas. These, however, remain to be verified since no rebel group in the country is known to be training suicide bombers. This would therefore represent a new phase of the conflict.

The US State Department has listed the Abu Sayyaf as a deadly terrorist organization that wreaks "havoc on the people of the Philippines". The fact that Washington included Abu Sayyaf in its list of international terrorist groups does not mean that American troops would go to Sulu for nothing. The problem is that the US troops may find in Sulu a larger enemy than Abu Sayyaf. That could turn out to be the entire population.

 

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