|
Friday, May 09, 2003
Probe up on ex-hostage's AFP-Abu link claim
MANILA -- President Arroyo ordered Thursday an investigation into allegations by a former American hostage that military officials had colluded with the Abu Sayyaf kidnap group.
The charges were made in a book by Gracia Burnham, an American missionary who was kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf in 2001 and rescued by soldiers in June of last year after more than a year in captivity.
Burnham's husband Martin, who was also held captive, and a Filipina hostage were killed in the military rescue operation. A third US hostage, Guillermo Sobero of California, was beheaded by the rebels along with several Filipino hostages in the course of the year-long hostage crisis.
Arroyo in a statement stressed her "unremitting confidence" in the Armed Forces in its continuing fight to crush the Abu Sayyaf, but stressed a probe into Burnham's claim was necessary.
Arroyo said she was ordering the departments of justice and foreign affairs "to arrange with US authorities, a formal and thorough investigation of Mrs. Burnham's allegations so that the facts may be laid bare to the public."
She said this would enable the government to "lodge the proper legal action against those found culpable" of any collusion.
She also ordered the military leadership to boost the rules of engagement "to prohibit and sanction any form of friendly contact" with the enemy.
"I would like to assure her (Burnham) that justice will be done in this case," Arroyo added.
But in an interview with US television cable network Fox News, Burnham clarified that she only wrote what she had heard from her captors and that she did not mean to accuse anyone.
"Well, that's what I was told, and I always preface in my book by 'that was what I was told.' I didn't really accuse anyone," Burnham said.
"I think the military was trying to get us out of there. I think they were doing all they could to locate us. And I think their agenda was to get us out of there safely."
In the book, excerpts of which were carried in local newspapers, Burnham alleged that Filipino soldiers had provided the Abu Sayyaf with food during her captivity as a general was reportedly "wheeling and dealing" for a cut in the ransom demanded by the kidnappers.
She said that during the ill-fated rescue, it was gunfire from the soldiers that had killed her husband Martin and wounded her, rather than bullets from the Abu Sayyaf.
Arroyo reiterated that she still had faith in the capability of the military to defeat the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim kidnap gang with alleged links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
Burnham's accounts have revived dormant suspicions that military officials were working with Abu Sayyaf gunmen.
Congress had previously investigated charges by a Filipino priest that the Abu Sayyaf were allowed to escape, along with the Burnhams and other hostages, from a military-surrounded hospital compound on the island of Basilan in June 2001.
A Senate investigating committee had said in August that there was "circumstantial evidence" of collusion and that three military officers should be court-martialed. However this recommendation was not carried out.
Although key Abu Sayyaf leaders have been killed or captured, the group remains at large, evading a massive military pursuit in the southern islands of Jolo and Basilan. They are still holding two Filipina Christian preachers in Jolo abducted in a separate incident last year.
For more than a decade, the group has been kidnapping Christians and foreigners and demanding huge ransom payments for their release. AFP
(May 9, 2003 issue)
Want Sun.Star news on your mobile phone? Click here.
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
|
|
 |
| click
to comment on this article or discuss it with other readers |
[return to top]
[home]
|
|
Cyanide caused 'fishkill' in Davao: FPA 11