US indicts 5 Abus; $55-M military aid for RP okayed

WASHINGTON – The US Department of Justice announced yesterday the indictment of a missing Abu Sayyaf spokesman and four other leaders with alleged links to al-Qaeda terrorists for kidnapping US nationals that led to the deaths of Americans Martin Burnham and Guillermo Sobero.

Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson said a federal grand jury in Washington handed up the five-count indictment against Abu Sayyaf spokesman Aldam Tilao, alias Abu Sabaya; Khadafi Abubakar Janjalani, alias Abu Muktar who is considered as the group’s spiritual leader; Isnilon Totoni Hapilon, alias Abu Musab, second in command known as "the Deputy;" Jainal Antel Sali Junior, alias Abu Solaiman, a commander for the rebels known as "the Engineer;" and Hamsiraji Marusi Sali, a commander also known as Tiberkis or Jose Ramirez.

Sabaya was believed killed in a seaborne encounter off Sibuco town in Zamboanga del Norte last June 21 but his body has not been recovered.

Meanwhile, the US House of Representatives approved on Tuesday $28.9 billion in emergency spending for the war on terror, including a new aid package for Israel to help it prevent new suicide bombings. The package also includes $55 million in military aid for the Philippines.

The bill, passed by lawmakers 397-32 after a brief debate, also contains a strict ban on US cooperation with the International Criminal Court set up by the United Nations to prosecute genocide and other crimes against humanity.

In the Philippines, officials said yesterday they would assert Manila’s right to prosecute any captured leaders of the Abu Sayyaf despite Washington’s moves to indict the bandits. None of the Abu Sayyaf leaders indicted in the US and also wanted in the Philippines is in custody.

"If they will be arrested, we will insist that they will be tried first here before they will be turned over to America," State Prosecutor Ricardo Cabaron said. He said the Philippine government has already filed cases against the five Abu Sayyaf leaders, ranging from kidnapping, illegal detention, kidnapping with ransom and murder.

Armed Forces chief Gen. Roy Cimatu said yesterday the five indicted Abu Sayyaf leaders will have to face charges filed against them in the Philippines before any extradition process can begin.

Cimatu said Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Ernesto Carolina had informed him the indicted Abu Sayyaf leaders were already facing court charges in Basilan and Zamboanga courts.

The US Embassy in Manila said Washington had made no demands for Philippine authorities to hand over Abu Sayyaf leaders, and said Washington was supporting Manila’s efforts to prosecute them.

Acting Justice Secretary Merceditas Gutierrez welcomed yesterday the indictment of the five Abu Sayyaf leaders, but said extraditing them to the US will have to be decided first by the local courts where they are facing charges.

Justice Undersecretary Manuel Teehankee said the US indictments "are without prejudice to the Philippine court’s primary jurisdiction over arrested Abu Sayyaf leaders."

If the defendants are caught, brought to the US to stand trial and convicted, they could face the death penalty on four of the five counts, US Justice Department officials said.

They are charged with conspiracy resulting in death, hostage-taking and three counts of hostage-taking resulting in death. The alleged conspiracy dated back to August 2000, with the kidnapping of US national Jeffrey Schilling, who later escaped.

"With today’s indictment, the US sends a signal we will work to track down and prosecute all those who commit barbaric acts of terrorism against Americans here, at home, and abroad," Thompson said.

"The Justice Department is committed to working with the government of the Philippines to bring the leaders of Abu Sayyaf to justice," Thompson said.

The federal charges were built on an indictment filed by a federal grand jury in February.

Martin and Gracia Burnham, missionaries from Kansas who had lived in the Philippines for 15 years, were among 20 people abducted by the Abu Sayyaf from the Dos Palmas resort in Palawan in May 2001. Peruvian-born Guillermo Sobero, also a US national, was beheaded shortly after the group’s kidnapping, but the Burnhams were held for more than a year and forced to make statements on behalf of their captors.

In the rescue effort June 7 by Philippine troops, Martin Burnham and Filipina nurse Edibora Yap were killed. Gracia Burnham sustained a gunshot wound to the leg.

February’s indictment was filed under seal to prevent any further harm from befalling the hostages, Thompson explained, but Tuesday’s indictment was updated to add Burnham and Yap "to the list of people whose death resulted from these criminal acts."

The initial charges date back to the August 2000 kidnap of Schilling, who eventually escaped from his captors after seven months of demands that a ransom of $10 million be paid went unheeded, Thompson said.

US military advisers began in January training Philippine troops in anti-terrorist exercise. The joint military exercise is called Balikatan 02-1 and ends this month, and a second, nine-month round is to begin in October.

The Abu Sayyaf had been designated a foreign terrorist group by the State Department in 1997. On June 21, in a raid assisted by US intelligence and communications, the Philippine armed forces clashed with troops loyal to senior Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sabaya, who was among the five named in the indictment.

Sabaya, also known as Aldam Tilao or Abu Catada or Abu Ahmad Salayuddin, served as a spokesman for the group. He was killed in the June 21 ambush along with two of his gunmen.

Officials said the Abu Sayyaf force has been weakened as the joint counter-terrorism operations of the Philippines and the US continued.

Anti-terror funds

The supplement budget request has already been reconciled with the Senate in a conference and is largely expected to be approved there.

Half of the money – $14.5 billion – will go to the Department of Defense.

Another $3.8 billion will be spent on bolstering security at US airports, $5.5 billion on helping New York recover after the Sept. 11 attacks, while the Federal Bureau of Investigation will be given an additional $175 million for its counter-terrorism activities.

With suicide bombings still ravaging Israel, it gives the Jewish state $200 million in additional assistance to combat international terrorism.

Residents of the West Bank and Gaza will receive $50 million in humanitarian aid, but the legislation strictly prohibits assistance to the Palestinian Authority.

The bill includes a $110-million aid package for countries of the former Soviet Union, primarily Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, which have allowed the US to use their bases in the war in Afghanistan.

But at the same time, it restricts US participation in international peacekeeping missions unless US servicemen are exempted from the jurisdiction of the tribunal.

The administration of President George W. Bush has withdrawn the US signature from an international accord which set up the court, arguing member nations had practically no tools to control it.

The supplemental anti-terror budget request had been bogged down on Capitol Hill for weeks, after senators attached to it dozens of items in unrelated election-year spending, bringing the total to more than $31 billion and prompting a White House veto threat.

But White House officials said Bush was "encouraged" by the compromise version of the bill because it addressed his goals of training and arming US troops and making airports safer while keeping total spending under control.

The supplemental budget will fund the war on terror through Sept. 30 when the current financial year ends.

Highlights Of The Compromise Anti-Terrorism Package

• Size: $28.9 billion, compared to $27.1 billion proposed by President George W. Bush. The money is for the federal fiscal year that runs through Sept. 30.

• Defense and intelligence: $14.5 billion. Includes money for troops’ pay, National Guard and Reserve expenses, aircraft repairs, modifying snipers’ rifles.

• Domestic security: $6.7 billion. Includes $3.85 billion for Transportation Security Administration; $528 million for Coast Guard; $175 million for FBI; $151 million in grants for equipment and training for first responders; $33 million for animal and plant health inspections; $158 million for protection of nuclear weapons facilities.

• New York: $5.5 billion. Includes $1.8 billion to rebuild destroyed transit systems; $783 million for economic redevelopment around World Trade Center site. Combined with previously provided money, this meets Bush’s pledge to provide $20 billion to the city.

• Foreign aid, diplomacy: $2.1 billion. Includes $200 million for Israel; $50 million humanitarian aid for Palestinians; about $35 million for Colombia; up to $134 million in disaster aid for Afghanistan; $10 million for Muslim exchange students; $1 million to help develop independent news organizations in Pakistan; up to $12 million for Indonesia; $55 million in military aid for the Philippines.

• Others: Includes $31 million for added Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement; $16 million to help northeastern fisheries; $2 million for Smithsonian Institution to buttress security of thousands of animal specimens stored in flammable alcohol.

• Savings: About $3 billion, including cuts from job training, Transportation Security Administration, defense, export assistance, new construction for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. – With reports from AFP, Roel Pareño, Paolo Romero, Delon Porcalla