The Abu Sayyaf is having fun

This is the problem when you give in to the caprices of terrorists. Give them a hand and they'll want an arm. Other countries have a hard-line policy against negotiating with terrorists, even if lives are at stake, arguing that giving in to even a single demand of any group would encourage further terrorist attacks. In this country, however, everything is negotiable. And the terrorists in question have the upper hand because most of their hostages are children. Nobody wants the blood of grade schoolers in his hands.

The Muslim fundamentalist group Abu Sayyaf, which has held Basilan and neighboring areas in the grip of terror for several years, is reaping maximum publicity for holding children as pawns. For some strange reason, the terrorists demanded to have their movie idol Robin Padilla as government negotiator. With great reluctance, the government agreed. Padilla's presence in Basilan, duly chronicled by the mass media, resulted in the release of just two hostages. The terrorists also wanted 200 sacks of rice and got 100.

After some ecstatic picture-taking with their idol, the terrorists drew up a list of more demands, some of them bordering on the bizarre. They want the release of Arab terrorists jailed in the United States for the World Trade Center bombing: Sheik Abdurahman Omar, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef and Abu Haider. They want foreign fishing boats banned around Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi. They want all Catholic crosses banned from Basilan. And in addition to Robin Padilla, they want the Italian ambassador included in the government's negotiating team. All these demands were contained in a two-page letter sent to no less than President Estrada by Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadafi Janjalani.

The only time the Abu Sayyaf appeared to have lost its nerve was when a vigilante group gave them an eye for an eye and seized Janjalani's pregnant wife and other relatives. These people recognize only the language of force. Don't expect all those precious hostages to be released in the unlikely event that all these insane demands are met. The Abu Sayyaf isn't negotiating; it's poking fun at a helpless government.