At least 100 suspected sympathizers of Muslim Abu Sayyaf kidnappers were arrested Friday in the southern Philippines after President Gloria Arroyo announced a major crackdown to end a prolonged hostage crisis.
And Arroyo warned that those nabbed could face the death penalty for helping the rebels, who are holding 21 American and Filipino hostages on Basilan island.
She said she ordered the crackdown because of "lawlessness" in the southern island of Basilan, where the rebels are hiding.
Arroyo said the order also covered the islands of Sulu and Tawi-tawi, further south of Basilan, and Zamboanga City, which is just a 30-minute boat ride from Basilan.
"At midnight last night, I ordered an intensified crackdown versus the Abu Sayyaf," she said.
"(The military will) identify and arrest these terrorists, confiscate equipment and tools of terrorists and segregate the active supporters of this terrorist group."
In the southern Philippines, Jesus Dureza, Arroyo's special assistant, said 100 people were arrested following Arroyo's crackdown order and more would be taken into custody.
"We will round-up people with evidence as conspirators, they will be investigated and charged if the evidence is strong," Dureza told AFP.
Justice Secretary Hernando Perez flew to Zamboanga city Friday to oversee the prosecution of the suspects.
Defence Secretary Angelo Reyes, military chief Diomedio Villanueva and national police chief Leandro Mendoza also headed south to help with the crackdown.
Arroyo's special order covered suspected Abu Sayyaf members and sympathizers who "fed, supplied and financed" the group and provided them with information.
However she stressed that authorities would not abuse the special powers.
Arroyo said the campaign would last "until everyone who is on the list (of suspects) is arrested."
Meanwhile regional military chief Lieutenant General Gregorio Camiling said in the southern city of Zamboanga that the kidnappers were using their hostages as human shields.
He said the military had seen the captors and their victims in Basilan, but did not give further details.
Earlier this week, police arrested several suspected Abu Sayyaf leaders, including a top commander, Nadjmi Sabdulla, alias Commander Global.
The hostage crisis is in its sixth week with some 5,000 Filipino troops involved in the operation to flush out rebels holding the captives in a forested mountain area in Basilan island.
The crisis began when the rebels abducted 17 Filipinos and three Americans from an upmarket resort on a nearby island on May 27.
Some Filipino hostages have since been freed, reportedly after ransoms were paid, but four Filipino captives have been killed and the Abu Sayyaf boast they beheaded one of the Americans, Californian Guillermo Sobero.
They still hold two other Americans and 19 Filipino hostages, some of whom were kidnapped in later incidents.
The top US military commander in Asia on Friday sympathized with the military operation to rescue the hostages but reiterated that US troops were not involved in the hunt.
"We recognize that this is a tough job down there in the south in terms of terrain and complexity of the operations," Admiral Dennis Blair, commander in chief of the US Pacific Command, told a media conference in Manila -- MANILA (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
