Today is Saturday Janurary 31st, 2009 and it is now 11:05 PM here in the Philippines.
Continuation from the last entry...
To the south and the west of me the Muslim Insurrections are still going strong.
With ASG, Abu Sayyaf the biggest event would probablly be the kidnapping of 3 ICRC (red Cross) workers on Sulu on 1/15. 1 was a female from Davao here on Mindanao but the other 2 are european men, an Italian and a Swiss and nothing gets the media going like a Westerner in peril anywhere in the world but especially here. There are more than 100 Filipino civlians known to be kidnapped by guerillas right now, and that number is probally more like 500 plus but let 2 Europeans get taken and all hell breaks loose.
More than Europeans, Americans seem to have higher news value, as we saw with the infamous Burnham Kidnapping, when 2 US Christian missionaries were taken from an upscale resort on the island of Palawan and spirited into the hinterlands of Basilan island, which is governmentally attached to us here on Mindanao.
The husband ended up killed but not by Abu Sayyaf, by the AFP (army) when they tried to "rescuse" him and his wife. a 3rd dual Peruvian/American, Gilberto Sobrero was executed by the ASG about a week after they were taken.
Sobrero was here to spend an idyllic vacation with his Filipina chatmate cum girlfriend (and I DO mean "cum" hahahaha), no matter that his poor Peruvian wife and kids were home in California. Poor Sobrero was on methadone, and when ASG grabbed the vacationers (many others taken as well but I believe the others were Filipinos so they did not matter to the fucking media) it was the middle of the night, they had no chance to take anything at all. A week later, Sobrero was babbling about needing medication (of course!) and they lopped off his head (Allah u Akbar!).
According to Burnham's wife who wrote a book about the ordeal (I actually have a copy since the army handed them out to many soldiers here, and most do not speak let alone read english it made its way to me in short shrift), they heard a knock on their cabin which was a bungalow on stilts, over the ocean conencted by boardwalk to other such bungalows, they thought it was just the drunk security guard bothering them for a bribe again. Lo and behold, it was the ASG. they took the clothes on their back and were gone for about a year.
It is interesting for many reasons but mostly to me because of the Burnhams being old hands here, like myself. they were not johnny-come-latelies who disregarded local mores. they and their children spoke several languages and dialects, lived like locals, and other than missionaries only socialised with locals. It did not matter.
She says that the kidnappers DID offer a modicum of respect to them , in her mind because they thought her to be religious but in reality I am sure it was due to their being such high value prizes in terms of ransoms. indeed, after a long time the US did, and this seems to be a fact, pay 300,000 US under the table for their release, only the cash never made it to Basilan, having been entrusted to another ASG factional leader on Jolo. Other than 200 US for each fighter (perhaps a bit more for their factional leader) no money made it to Basilan.
The US is big on "Never pay ransom!" but in reality they are pragmatists. Sadly they have little understanding of the world outside their own borders. Look at the recent Saudi debacle with Somali pirates. The pirates took a 20 foot motorised skiff into the shipping lanes and using just AKs got a freighter full of Saudi petrol to stop!!! Granted, a nice explosion might have ensued but I would like to think that Saudi tankers, among others, could withstand a punch from an AK, after all we are not talking RPGs or mortars.
Boarding the boat there was a very long (weeks) impasse after whicht he Saudis coptered in 3 million US!
In a stroke of fate, as the happy as shit pirates were heading back to shore a squall blew up (Monsoon season after all) and over turned their tiny boat. Whether they could swim or not, all drowned. One man DID wash up on shore last week with 155,000 US strapped to his waist, found by family members who are very happy never the less, I am quite sure.
The point though is that WHEN you pay, you can expect that the acts willincrease, NOT decrease! With ASG, they of course have.
The ICRC workers were in Patikul, the main village in sulu, and there to inspect the govt. prison to ensure better conditions for ASG! You would expect the guerillas to have a modicum of consideration but of course they only care about one thing. fuck redevelopment, fuck better lives for their children, they wanna' get paid man!
This week, a famous Filipino movie star Robin Padilla offered to act as a go-between to work out the ransom (no thought on release without ransom of course, thanks Uncle Sam!). Padilla is one of many Filipinos who converted to islam, a phenomenon I described in detail in an earlier entry in my Blog here. His conversion, or "reversion" as it is considered as such by these converts happened in prison in the mid 90s as he served a couple of years ofr a weapons offence.
His pre-incarceration bodyguards were ASG guerillas actually, one of which the famed "Kummander Kosovo" was killed while making a daring prison escape with other ASG members sometime after. So perhaps Padilla's conversion was a mere formality. In any event, the former action star (think a cheesy Charles Bronson) offered his "services."
This really drew my curiosity when the MILF, often a tactical ally of the ASG, warned Padilla to never do this again and to essentially mind his business! they gave a nice press release about how the ASG WAs a real islamist group but is now only motivated by money and materiel gain.
In Zamobanga and Basilan (and perhaps closer to my province than anyone thought) the ASG and MILF are often indistringuishable from one another since they operate jointly more often than not. This COULD signal a shift in MILF polciy but one will have to wait and see.
Then, on Basilan on 1/29, the mayor of al Barka village was killed by the ASG in an attack that also killed 2 of his bodyguards as they traveled in a convoy between Lamitan City and al Barka. The ambush took place in Cabangalan village and involved RPG and AK.
On 1/23, 3 teachers were travelling by boat from Sacol Island off of Zamboanga , to Zamboanga when they were kidnapped by the Basialn faction of the ASG who were in another boat. The ransom is supposed to be 6 million pesos per teacher but the families are trying to bragain since they are all very poor.
That is the second kidnapping by that group, by boat. the other kidnapping victim is a bakery franchisee who also owns a small fishing fleet. He is still in cpativity as well but has been sighted deep in the bush of Basilan, around the village of Hadji Mohammad (sic) Ajul, an ASG stronghold.
There have been small firefights on Jolo involving US Forces but i have to add ALLEGEDLY since the US is "forbidden" by Philippine Law to engage in armed conflict on this country's soil. Sulu remains firmly in ASG hands, although there are also MNLF (not MILF mind you) guerillas operating as well, and on Jolo i have to add that the 2 MILF commands are still in the bush.
I will get to MILF activities and Clan Wars in my next entry. All for now...
Continuation from the last entry...
To the south and the west of me the Muslim Insurrections are still going strong.
With ASG, Abu Sayyaf the biggest event would probablly be the kidnapping of 3 ICRC (red Cross) workers on Sulu on 1/15. 1 was a female from Davao here on Mindanao but the other 2 are european men, an Italian and a Swiss and nothing gets the media going like a Westerner in peril anywhere in the world but especially here. There are more than 100 Filipino civlians known to be kidnapped by guerillas right now, and that number is probally more like 500 plus but let 2 Europeans get taken and all hell breaks loose.
More than Europeans, Americans seem to have higher news value, as we saw with the infamous Burnham Kidnapping, when 2 US Christian missionaries were taken from an upscale resort on the island of Palawan and spirited into the hinterlands of Basilan island, which is governmentally attached to us here on Mindanao.
The husband ended up killed but not by Abu Sayyaf, by the AFP (army) when they tried to "rescuse" him and his wife. a 3rd dual Peruvian/American, Gilberto Sobrero was executed by the ASG about a week after they were taken.
Sobrero was here to spend an idyllic vacation with his Filipina chatmate cum girlfriend (and I DO mean "cum" hahahaha), no matter that his poor Peruvian wife and kids were home in California. Poor Sobrero was on methadone, and when ASG grabbed the vacationers (many others taken as well but I believe the others were Filipinos so they did not matter to the fucking media) it was the middle of the night, they had no chance to take anything at all. A week later, Sobrero was babbling about needing medication (of course!) and they lopped off his head (Allah u Akbar!).
According to Burnham's wife who wrote a book about the ordeal (I actually have a copy since the army handed them out to many soldiers here, and most do not speak let alone read english it made its way to me in short shrift), they heard a knock on their cabin which was a bungalow on stilts, over the ocean conencted by boardwalk to other such bungalows, they thought it was just the drunk security guard bothering them for a bribe again. Lo and behold, it was the ASG. they took the clothes on their back and were gone for about a year.
It is interesting for many reasons but mostly to me because of the Burnhams being old hands here, like myself. they were not johnny-come-latelies who disregarded local mores. they and their children spoke several languages and dialects, lived like locals, and other than missionaries only socialised with locals. It did not matter.
She says that the kidnappers DID offer a modicum of respect to them , in her mind because they thought her to be religious but in reality I am sure it was due to their being such high value prizes in terms of ransoms. indeed, after a long time the US did, and this seems to be a fact, pay 300,000 US under the table for their release, only the cash never made it to Basilan, having been entrusted to another ASG factional leader on Jolo. Other than 200 US for each fighter (perhaps a bit more for their factional leader) no money made it to Basilan.
The US is big on "Never pay ransom!" but in reality they are pragmatists. Sadly they have little understanding of the world outside their own borders. Look at the recent Saudi debacle with Somali pirates. The pirates took a 20 foot motorised skiff into the shipping lanes and using just AKs got a freighter full of Saudi petrol to stop!!! Granted, a nice explosion might have ensued but I would like to think that Saudi tankers, among others, could withstand a punch from an AK, after all we are not talking RPGs or mortars.
Boarding the boat there was a very long (weeks) impasse after whicht he Saudis coptered in 3 million US!
In a stroke of fate, as the happy as shit pirates were heading back to shore a squall blew up (Monsoon season after all) and over turned their tiny boat. Whether they could swim or not, all drowned. One man DID wash up on shore last week with 155,000 US strapped to his waist, found by family members who are very happy never the less, I am quite sure.
The point though is that WHEN you pay, you can expect that the acts willincrease, NOT decrease! With ASG, they of course have.
The ICRC workers were in Patikul, the main village in sulu, and there to inspect the govt. prison to ensure better conditions for ASG! You would expect the guerillas to have a modicum of consideration but of course they only care about one thing. fuck redevelopment, fuck better lives for their children, they wanna' get paid man!
This week, a famous Filipino movie star Robin Padilla offered to act as a go-between to work out the ransom (no thought on release without ransom of course, thanks Uncle Sam!). Padilla is one of many Filipinos who converted to islam, a phenomenon I described in detail in an earlier entry in my Blog here. His conversion, or "reversion" as it is considered as such by these converts happened in prison in the mid 90s as he served a couple of years ofr a weapons offence.
His pre-incarceration bodyguards were ASG guerillas actually, one of which the famed "Kummander Kosovo" was killed while making a daring prison escape with other ASG members sometime after. So perhaps Padilla's conversion was a mere formality. In any event, the former action star (think a cheesy Charles Bronson) offered his "services."
This really drew my curiosity when the MILF, often a tactical ally of the ASG, warned Padilla to never do this again and to essentially mind his business! they gave a nice press release about how the ASG WAs a real islamist group but is now only motivated by money and materiel gain.
In Zamobanga and Basilan (and perhaps closer to my province than anyone thought) the ASG and MILF are often indistringuishable from one another since they operate jointly more often than not. This COULD signal a shift in MILF polciy but one will have to wait and see.
Then, on Basilan on 1/29, the mayor of al Barka village was killed by the ASG in an attack that also killed 2 of his bodyguards as they traveled in a convoy between Lamitan City and al Barka. The ambush took place in Cabangalan village and involved RPG and AK.
On 1/23, 3 teachers were travelling by boat from Sacol Island off of Zamboanga , to Zamboanga when they were kidnapped by the Basialn faction of the ASG who were in another boat. The ransom is supposed to be 6 million pesos per teacher but the families are trying to bragain since they are all very poor.
That is the second kidnapping by that group, by boat. the other kidnapping victim is a bakery franchisee who also owns a small fishing fleet. He is still in cpativity as well but has been sighted deep in the bush of Basilan, around the village of Hadji Mohammad (sic) Ajul, an ASG stronghold.
There have been small firefights on Jolo involving US Forces but i have to add ALLEGEDLY since the US is "forbidden" by Philippine Law to engage in armed conflict on this country's soil. Sulu remains firmly in ASG hands, although there are also MNLF (not MILF mind you) guerillas operating as well, and on Jolo i have to add that the 2 MILF commands are still in the bush.
I will get to MILF activities and Clan Wars in my next entry. All for now...