Did Sayyaf get new guns from generals? http://www.philstar.com/datedata/h21_jun21/edi5.htm - Gotcha by Jarius Bondoc Details just didn't jibe. A high military officer leaked news last week that Abu Sayyaf bandits had smuggled 5,000 modern high-powered guns from Vietnam to Davao on June 1. Gun importers wondered how that can happen when all guns traded in Vietnam are War-vintage M-16s and .45-caliber pistols left behind by retreating US forces in the '70s. Besides, Abu Sayyaf doesn't have that many men -- only 800 in Sulu-Basilan, by AFP estimates -- to handle such huge arsenal. There had to be another source, possibly an industrial power. And it couldn't be for Abu Sayyaf. In fact, AFP camps in Mindanao were abuzz with talk that Vietnam was only a transshipment point. AFP intelligence men noted that the guns were US-made. Quoting information shared by Israel's Mossad, they said these came all the way from the US, bought by Indonesian mercenaries in Manado using Mindanao aid money from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Brunei and Arab billionaire Osama bin Laden. They traced the shipment to Sandakan in Sabah, where it was loaded on two submarines for landing in Davao. From there, it was trucked to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front's main Camp Abubakar in Maguindanao. Secessionist leaders distributed the guns to forces in Lanao, Davao, Cotabato, Surigao, Zamboanga, Basilan Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Palawan. Some guns landed in Abu Sayyaf hands only because the bandits in Sulu-Basilan have dual-membership in MILF. But how could rebels pull such a huge shipment undetected, much more unhampered, by 65,000 government troops -- 60 percent of AFP's strength -- fighting in and around Mindanao? AFP intelligence head Gen. Jose Calimlim provided part of the answer Monday. He said Bin Laden had given $3 million for the arms purchase. Salih Balamul, a deputy of MILF vice chairman Al Haj Murad, had received the cash in Malaysia from a Middle Eastern country on May 6. From there, Balamul oversaw the shipment. What Calimlim didn't mention was other info from Mossad: Balamul was spotted twice in Labuan, also in Sabah, meeting with an AFP general. P25 million changed hands. The deal: Mr. General, with three others in Mindanao (one of them newly-retired but still influential), would look the other way while the MILF landed and moved the guns. They were going to have a war game with the MILF, which they believe they handily can defeat, and make big bucks in the process. No wonder, Mr. General was absent for some time when fighting was at its fiercest in Central Mindanao. * * * The quarrel has worsened among Abu Sayyaf's five Sulu leaders about how to deal with presidential adviser Robert Aventajado. Three of them want to continue negotiating with Aventajado for the release of their 21 mostly foreign hostages. Two want him out, ostensibly for talking about a military rescue, but actually for refusing to talk ransom. As I wrote last week, Nadjmi Sabdullah (Commander Global), Dr. Abu Jumdail and Radulan Sajiron want political concessions in exchange for the release of 21 mostly foreign hostages. Mujib Susukan and Galib Andang (Commander Robot) want only money; thus, they've taken the ten Caucasians deeper into the jungles of their Talipao hometown to fetch a bargain, leaving their comrades with nine Malaysians and two Filipinos. Aventajado has resumed talks with Jumdail, Global and Sajiron, who are demanding the setting up of a separate Islamic state of Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan, and the formation of a government commission to look after Tausugs in Sabah. Through emissaries, Susukan and Robot are talking money with envoys of Germany, France, Finland and Malaysia. Having planned and led the kidnapping in Malaysia's Sipadan Island, militarists Susukan and Robot insist that they should lead the talks, not their ideologue higher-ups. Besides, they command more men than the three; Susukan has 100, Robot has 80. Aventajado has pleaded with the envoys not to turn the talks into an auction, lest Susukan and Robot play them against each other for highest bidder. But the envoys are under pressure from their governments to get their hostaged nationals home. Susukan and Robot have dropped their common political demands with the trio. The European envoys had argued, and the two seemed convinced, that separation is nonsense. They cited how Europe is uniting to be big, so why should Mindanao secede to be small. Susukan and Robot also cannot see how the Manila government can form a separate Islamic state, something they should fight for instead of ridiculously asking Manila to do. They view the council on Tausugs as incongruous with secession; if they want to separate, why rely on Manila to take care of provincemates in Sabah? * * * Aventajado called, by the way, to deny my earlier report that MILF thinks he double-crossed them and thus warned Abu Sayyaf about it. He said Maguindanao Sammy Gambar, an aide of MILF's Murad, even briefed him on how to deal with Tausugs. Okay, if you say so, but watch your back. * * * You can e-mail comments to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ <B>SALESFORCE.COM MAKES SOFTWARE OBSOLETE Secure, online sales force automation with 5 users FREE for 1 year! </B><A HREF="http://click.egroups.com/1/2658/6/_/475667/_/961592213/">[ Click Here ]</A> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
