Misuari replaced as gov't negotiator

President Estrada replaced yesterday Nur Misuari as the government's chief negotiator dealing with the Abu Sayyaf.

The President also responded coolly to a demand from the rebels who are holding 21 hostages, including 10 foreign tourists, that ambassadors from all the captives' nations be involved in negotiations for their release.

Respected Muslim religious leader Ustadz Ghazali Ibrahim will take over as negotiator from Gov. Nur Misuari of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). Ibrahim will still report to Misuari any developments in the negotiations.

ARMM Interior Assistant Secretary Adburahman Jamasali will act as Ibrahim's emissary.

"For the moment, I think these people are in better place than I am," said Misuari, a former rebel leader. "They can travel without security, while me, I'm full of armed men."

In a letter to Mr. Estrada, four top Abu Sayyaf rebel leaders rejected Misuari as negotiator, and demanded instead to negotiate with the ambassadors, Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora, and representatives of the United Nations, Libya and other Islamic nations.

The letter was written Saturday during a visit by two Associated Press journalists to the rebels' hideout in the hills of Jolo island in the southern Philippines.

"To put it quite bluntly, our initial reaction to this is not very positive," said Presidential Spokesman Ricardo Puno. "We must discuss this some more because the principle involved here is whether they should be allowed to specify conditions under which talks will be held."

Zamora said he would be willing to participate if Mr. Estrada decides he should. "Of course, I would. But it's really up to the President to decide on that," Zamora told The STAR.

The government has repeatedly insisted that the kidnapping is a domestic issue and has refused to include other countries in the negotiations.

Other nations have offered to help, and a ranking European Union (EU) diplomat, Javier Solana, is to arrive in Manila today to underline Europe's concern for the safety of the hostages.

"Mr. Solana will show his political and moral support for the administration to solve this situation peacefully without inducing harm to the hostages," a European envoy to Manila said.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Domingo Siazon Jr. stressed yesterday this was not a form of foreign intervention, just part of usual diplomatic relations.

"We understand their concern because of the political implications and impact on them," Siazon said, referring to the EU foreign ministers' decision to dispatch Solana.

Mr. Estrada had warned the EU last Sunday that Solana's mission could exacerbate the already tense hostage crisis. Puno said the presence of a high-profile official might embolden the rebels who have shown no mercy so far.

"The more we give a lot of publicity to this particular problem, the more these people might exploit the situation to get publicity in the media," he said.

The hostages consist of three Germans, two French, two South Africans, two Finns, a Lebanese, nine Malaysians and two Filipinos. They were snatched from Sipadan Island, a Malaysian diving resort, last April 23 and brought by boat to Jolo at the tip of the southern Philippines.

They are now being held in an outdoor cage made of branches, with a sheet of banana leaves spread on the ground. The cage is divided in two, with the foreign tourists separated from the Asians.

In an attempt to win their freedom, a German woman, Renate Wallert, has been on a hunger strike for days, according to Huda Lim, a doctor looking after the hostages. The rebels rejected Lim's pleas to free Wallert for humanitarian reasons.

Later in Zamboanga City, Lim informed the father and cousin of Lebanese hostage Marie Moarbes that she was doing fine and was actively looking after her fellow hostages, being a Red Cross volunteer. Moarbes' father, Jorge, and cousin, Michelle, arrived in Manila days ago.

The kidnapping is part of a wave of violence that has swept in recent weeks across the impoverished southern Mindanao region, where Muslim guerrillas have spent 28 years fighting for a separate Islamic nation in the mostly Roman Catholic Philippines.

President Estrada, wearing military camouflage, visited the region last Sunday to encourage the military's campaign against the rebels.

"We have only one flag, we have one constitution, we have one government, we are one nation, and our only land is the Philippines," he said.

Yesterday, Mr. Estrada paid a surprise visit to 93 soldiers wounded in the fight against the Abu Sayyaf and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and now recuperating at the AFP Medical Center in Quezon City.

He had a pep talk with them, gave P20,000 checks, promoted some of the men and pinned Wounded Personnel medals on them.

When the AP journalists visited the Abu Sayyaf camp, more than 100 guerrillas armed with M-16 rifles, grenades and long knives roamed the area in the foothills of a small mountain. Some were setting up a row of tents made of blue rice sacks while others cooked rice over a wood fire.

The hostages appealed emotionally to the Philippine military to halt its operations in the area. The rebels have clashed repeatedly with government soldiers since last Tuesday, when the military encircled the guerrillas.

Last Sunday, the rebels and troops traded mortar and automatic weapons fire, a government official said. A rebel and a soldier were killed.

The Abu Sayyaf, the smaller and more extreme of two Muslim rebel groups, is also holding another group of Filipino hostages seized from schools in nearby Basilan province, including many children. After clashes, killings, and rescues, approximately eight people from that group are believed still in their hands.

At least 14 soldiers were killed in an ambush by the rebels Sunday in Lantawan, near where the military rescued 15 of the Filipino hostages last week, Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado said yesterday.

GMA Television, which had a crew near the scene, reported that three guides and a local village leader were killed along with at least a dozen soldiers. More than 10 other soldiers were wounded, it said.

After the battle, bodies in blood-soaked uniforms were hauled off on a horse-drawn litter. Some had been beheaded by the rebels. One grimy soldier wept, as helicopters clattered overhead.

Mercado yesterday condemned the Abu Sayyaf for mutilating bodies. "Even in war, there are rules," he said in a radio interview. " (Walang pugutan. Walang tanggalan ng mata (No Beheading. No gouging of eyes.)"

Military spokesman Col. Rafael Romero said, "This is not the first time this mutilation has happened. They do this to strike fear and terror. But it does not have that effect as far as the military is concerned."

Elsewhere in Mindanao, bomb explosions and clashes between government troops and the larger Muslim rebel group, the MILF, have killed dozens of people in the past week.

The fighting with the MILF flared on April 28 when soldiers attacked a group of rebels holding a highway along the edge of Camp Abubakar, the MILF's main redoubt. The MILF said it considered the action an attack on the camp and withdrew from the peace talks.

Troops were within about 200 meters of the camp on Sunday, marine Brig. Gen. Emmanuel Teodosio said.

Senate President Franklin Drilon sought yesterday a closed-door security briefing with top military and government officials, and local Mindanao officials on the situation in the south.

Majority Leader Francisco Tatad said the decision to call for a briefing was made during a Senate caucus yesterday.

Drilon wants Mercado, Armed Forces chief Gen. Angelo Reyes, National Security Adviser Alexander Aguirre and Interior Secretary Alfredo Lim to be there.

In another development, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has extended food assistance to the families of 11 teachers and schoolchildren still being held hostage by the Abu Sayyaf.

Reports reaching Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who is concurrent DSWD secretary, said the food assistance included rice, sausages, sardines, noodles, milk, corned beef, pork and beans, beef loaf and sugar. --