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Philippines military aid seen as test

by GRACE HOBSON; RICK MONTGOMERY

To understand the challenge facing troops in the dense jungles of the Philippines, consider a lesson from history.

Half a century ago, the Philippine army marched through that jungle, closing in on a Muslim bandit and kidnapper, and trapping him inside a bamboo fence. Yet even as the soldiers stood virtually shoulder to shoulder to block his escape, he managed to slip away.

Today the Philippine army, with help from 660 U.S. soldiers, faces a similar task as it works to capture Muslim extremists and free Martin and Gracia Burnham, missionaries from Rose Hill, Kan., who have been held hostage since May.

The mission is called Balikatan, or "shoulder to shoulder." It is the first expansion of the U.S. war on terrorism. As in Afghanistan, U.S. military advice, discipline and technology - night-vision goggles are a must in the jungle - will give the Philippine army advantages it has never had in its decades-long fight against Muslim separatists. But there are important differences. This enemy - a brutal group called Abu Sayyaf - is few in number: no more than 300 members.

And unlike the al-Qaida and Taliban fighters who could melt away into the Afghan mountains or disappear across borders, Abu Sayyaf is confined primarily to two small islands.

Finally, U.S. troops this time are working with a longtime ally. Invited by Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the Americans include 160 Special Forces members. They reportedly will not fight unless fired upon.

"The Philippines will be a test case to see how this method works in waging the rest of the war," said William Berry, professor of political science at the U.S. Air Force Academy. "Using our advisers and equipment to assist foreign forces is certainly the preferred way to go."

The Bush administration links Abu Sayyaf to the al-Qaida terrorist network, although the links are disputed. In many ways the band operates more like a criminal gang out for money than terrorists waging jihad.

But clearly, Abu Sayyaf doesn't blanch at killing - perhaps 100 killings in the last decade, say some experts.

And for eight months they have had the Burnhams, who, along with a Philippine nurse held hostage, are caught in a terrifying convergence of Philippine history and hate. Just last week a Philippine television station made public two letters apparently from the Burnhams, one saying the couple will never be released unless Abu Sayyaf receives some sort of concession, such as ransom.

"This crisis has many aspects," said Belinda Aquino, director of the Center for Philippine Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. "It's not just about Christians and Muslims. It's about land and culture and government and politics."

For the United States, the goal is to solve more problems than the mission may create, said John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org.

"There's nothing implausible about the U.S. being able to shut down Abu Sayyaf by year's end, write, 'Case closed,' and move on," Pike said.

Still, the very phrase "military advisers" hearkens to the quagmire that became the Vietnam War.

"It's premature to suggest a strong analogy to Vietnam," Pike said. "But, hey, we're back in the jungle, fighting guerrillas."

Muslim autonomy

As the United States re-enters the Philippines, it confronts a culture of kidnappings, a ragtag military made ineffective by corruption, and a populace tired and suspicious of American meddling.

Although Muslims today account for only 5 percent of the Philippine population, Islamic groups have fought for autonomy since Spanish conquistadors brought Roman Catholicism to most of the islands in the 16th century.

Then came the Americans, beginning in 1898. The United States took control of the Philippines after the Spanish-American War. The islands had endured 425 years of foreign rule when the United States granted full independence in 1946.

Neither the Spanish nor the Americans nor the new national government could conquer Muslim sultanates in the southern islands, said Thomas McKenna, an expert on Philippine Muslims who has written extensively on the separatist movements.

Tensions eased for a short time in the 1970s as the Philippine government reached a peace deal with the Moro National Liberation Front ("Moro" is the name given Philippine Muslims).

The peace eventually dissolved, but one part of the agreement had a lasting effect: It encouraged the development of Islam in the southern Philippines - until then an isolated, faraway outpost of the religion.

Clerics from across Islam began missionary treks, allowing the Moros to forge connections to the Mideast, said James Clad, until recently a Georgetown University professor of Southeast Asian studies.

Some of those connections are now seen as the Philippines' first links to international terrorism.

Robbery, kidnapping

Abu Sayyaf means "bearer of the sword."

Although the militant group today lacks a well-known villain at the helm, analysts trace its inception to a Filipino separatist named Abdurajak Janjalani.

In the 1980s he may have fought in Afghanistan, beside fellow Muslims resisting Soviet invaders.

In the early 1990s, Janjalani abandoned the Moro National Liberation Front because it was not radical enough, McKenna said. Janjalani's new outfit reportedly was financed by Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law.

Abu Sayyaf staged a premier act of violence in 1995, raiding banks in the Zamboangan Peninsula, leaving 40 persons dead.

The group became even more notorious after Janjalani's death in 1998. The rebels executed a Catholic priest and kidnapped Western hostages in Malaysia, making off with at least $10 million in ransom, McKenna said. Some reports put the amount as high as $25 million.

The group reportedly has asked for $2 million for the Burnhams.

Abu Sayyaf has almost no popular support in the southern Philippines, McKenna said. Even other Muslim separatists dismiss the bandits for seeming more interested in scooping up ransoms than forwarding an Islamic movement.

"They are a strange hybrid of a criminal gang and Islamic extremists," McKenna said. "It seems when push comes to shove, they always choose the money over the ideological cause."

Their activities are not unusual in the region.

"Kidnapping for ransom has been endemic to the Philippines for years," said historian Grant Goodman, professor emeritus at the University of Kansas, who has lived in the Philippines.

The culture has led some experts to wonder whether Abu Sayyaf is nothing more than a greedy clan of body snatchers - not an al-Qaida cell.

Whatever the group's purpose, its methods speak evil. A third American captured with the Burnhams, Guillermo Sobero, was beheaded in June. An Abu Sayyaf spokesman called the killing a "gift" for Philippine President Arroyo.

"Whether or not they are connected to al-Qaida, they are terrorists," Arroyo said recently. "They terrorize two islands in the southwestern corner of our country."

Some analysts, however, say a connection to al-Qaida is critical to justify American involvement.

"If they have links to al-Qaida, it's important to us," said Larry Korb, director of studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. "It's a matter of where terrorists might go after being driven out of Afghanistan.

"But we have to be very careful. We used to see communists under every bed. Now it's al-Qaida terrorists everywhere."

'The U.S. is back'

Sixty years after U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur pledged, "I shall return," to rid the Philippines of Japanese invaders, do Filipinos today really want another return?

"For them, it's, 'Gee, the U.S. is back,"' Korb said. "They thought they got rid of us."

A recent poll showed 85 percent of Filipinos support U.S. assistance to defeat Abu Sayyaf. But on Wednesday, a politically minded group of the nation's movie stars formed an alliance whose acronym is a direct message to U.S. troops - OUT NOW.

A passion for autonomy still runs deep through a region so familiar with colonialism.

Donald Emmerson, a political scientist at Stanford University, recently told a congressional panel that many Southeast Asians are worried that America's war on terror "is going to become a monomaniacal litmus test, that all else will be shoved aside as the Americans pursue this very single-minded policy."

As former Philippine President Manuel Quezon observed decades ago: "I would rather live under a government run like hell by Filipinos than under one run like heaven by Americans."

Filipinos' "love-hate relationship with Americans," in Berry's words, took a dramatic turn a decade ago. The Philippine Senate refused to extend the agreement reached after World War II to keep two U.S. military bases in the islands.

America's military exit, however, left the Philippines with a peasant army using 1950s-era aircraft. While American troops have returned occasionally for a few weeks to help train Filipinos, the army's primitive state today explains why thousands of its troops seem incapable of rooting out maybe 100 Abu Sayyaf ruffians on the island of Basilan.

Less than a month into the Burnhams' ordeal, 5,000 soldiers had the Abu Sayyaf surrounded in a hospital. Inexplicably, the bandits were able to walk away with their hostages.

Clad, a former foreign correspondent in the Philippines, thinks that's one good reason for America to get involved.

"We're there to improve the military discipline and the chain of command, and improve the investment climate in the Philippines by getting rid of this kidnapping scare," Clad said, "and to deal a blow to a group or groups that have links with world terrorists."

Lawmakers' help

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recently said the Burnhams' kidnapping only "adds a dimension" to the U.S. interest in the Philippines, according to Time magazine.

Nevertheless, the mission has brought heightened attention to the couple's plight.

Last week, U.S. Rep. Todd Tiahrt of Kansas launched a series of one-minute speeches in Congress "to pray for the safe and swift release of Martin and Gracia Burnham from this endless nightmare."

For several weeks before Sept. 11, Tiahrt and other members of the Kansas congressional delegation pressed the issue of the Burnhams' captivity with federal and Philippine officials.

The State Department initially advised Tiahrt to avoid fueling the story in the news, thinking that the less attention paid to the kidnapping, the better the Burnhams' chances were of being released, Tiahrt said.

U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas also met cool reactions when he suggested to Defense Department officials last summer that the United States provide military assistance to Filipino soldiers searching for Abu Sayyaf hideouts.

The Bush administration at the time "felt this would set the die for future situations in which hostages were taken," Brownback said last week. "But the discussions completely shifted after September 11."

Brownback recently said at a public function in Kansas that the Philippines were becoming the "second front," after Afghanistan, in the war on terror. His comment drew an icy response from Arroyo and other Philippine officials, who last week insisted that their troops wouldn't be taking orders from Americans.

Questioned later, the senator rephrased the operation.

"This is a training exercise," he said. "The U.S. will help in any way that the Filipinos will receive."

Now, Tiahrt said, "I feel confident the Burnhams will be safely released with our troops on the ground. But I don't think we should just go home if they are released."

Pike, the analyst with GlobalSecurity.org, said that in trying to crush Abu Sayyaf, American forces must be careful not to enrage other Muslims in the region.

"This is just one hard-core bunch that slipped between the cracks," he said. "The U.S. has to avoid reigniting other Muslim insurgencies down there in extricating this one."

- To reach Grace Hobson, call (816) 234-7744 or send e-mail to ghobson@kcstar.com.

- To reach Rick Montgomery, national correspondent, call (816) 234-7744 or send e-mail to rmontgomery@kcstar.com.

May 2001: Martin and Gracia Burnham, missionaries from Rose Hill, Kan., who had been in the Philippines since 1986, are kidnapped with about 20 others from a resort on the island of Palawan. The Burnhams had been celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary.

June-August: The Abu Sayyaf guerrillas holding the Burnhams take more hostages from a hospital and plantation and murder eight of their captives, including American Guillermo Sobero of Corona, Calif.

September: The Burnhams' plight gains wider visibility when reports link Abu Sayyaf to the al-Qaida terrorist network.

November: A Filipino news crew films the Burnhams in the jungle where they are being held captive. They describe their ordeal and appeal for the U.S. government to negotiate their release.

January: U.S. troops join the hunt for the Abu Sayyaf, which now is demanding $2 million for release of the Burnhams.

ABOUT THE PHILIPPINES:

GOVERNMENT

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was sworn in as the 14th president of the Philippines in January 2001 after the nation's Supreme Court declared the office vacant because of widespread corruption in the administration of President Joseph Estrada. The daughter of a former Philippine president, she attended Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She was appointed to her first government job by President Corazon Aquino after the turmoil of the regime of Ferdinand Marcos.

HISTORY

Inhabited for 30,000 years or more, the Philippines were discovered and settled by the Chinese in the 10th century. Muslim traders from Borneo brought their religion to the islands in the 14th century. Western influence on the island chain began with the arrival of the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who arrived March 15, 1521, and was killed in a clash with tribesmen on Mactan Island a month later. The Spanish colonized the islands in the 16th century, naming it for King Philip II. In 1898, Spain ceded the Philippines to the U.S. at the end of the Spanish-American War. The islands became a self-governing U.S. commonwealth in 1935. The Philippines became an independent nation on July 4, 1946. The U.S. maintained military bases in the islands until 1992, when the Subic Bay naval base was closed.

PHILIPPINE MUSLIMS

The Moros, as they are known, are concentrated in the southern Philippines on the large island of Mindanao and the smaller islands of Basilan and Jolo. Arabic traders brought Islam to the islands in the 14th century from nearby Indonesia and Malaysia.

INSURGENT GROUPS

Abu Sayyaf: A small but violent splinter group whose name means "bearer of the sword." At one time had apparent ties to al-Qaida, and its first leader fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan; Noted for banditry, assassination, kidnapping and beheading some victims, and forcing women hostages into "marriage."

Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF): Founded in 1970; conducted guerrilla war seeking independence; a 1996 peace agreement with the Philippine government did not grant independence but established the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.

Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF): Split from MNLF in late 1970s; rejected 1996 peace plan because it did not meet demands for implementing Islamic law. Signed a cease-fire with the government in August 2001 but still has several thousand fighters on Mindanao.

New People's Army: Communist rebel group in the northern Philippines, attacked American military personnel before U.S. bases were closed in 1992. Considered a terrorist group whose members should be denied U.S. visas.

U.S. MILITARY COMMITMENT

Troops: 160 Army Special Forces soldiers and about 500 support troops. Other aid: $100 million in military assistance; military gear, including C-130 transport plane, eight Huey helicopters, patrol boats, M-16 rifles, grenade launchers and mortars.

Official mission: The Philippine constitution forbids foreigners from fighting on Philippine soil, so U.S. soldiers officially are taking part in a joint military exercise to train Filipinos in counterterrorism and night combat.

Larger mission: U.S. advisers will accompany Philippine soldiers on patrols to root out the remnants of Abu Sayyaf on Basilan Island. They will not fight unless fired upon. An attempt to rescue two Americans and a Filipino nurse being held hostage is expected.

Copyright 2002 The Kansas City Star Co.