The Independent,

January 30, 2001, The Independent, Toppled Estrada had 15 bank accounts,
January 31, 2001, The Independent, Philippines' new leader vows to 'crush' plotters, by Richard Lloyd Parry,
February 1, 2001, The Independent, I am alive, well and still the President, declares Estrada, by Richard Lloyd Parry,
February 3, 2001, The Independent, Six–year–old stepdaughter of Briton freed by soldiers,
February 3, 2001, The Independent, April, 6, rescued by soldiers in Philippines,
February 4, 2001, The Independent, Girl, 6, rescued from Philippine kidnap ordeal,
February 6, 2001, The Independent, Philippine president names vice president,
February 6, 2001, The Independent, Ousted Estrada files lawsuit against successor,
[March?]
April 13, 2001, The Independent, Philippines Forces Rescue American Hostage in Raid on Rebel Hide- Out, by Paul Alexander,
April 17, 2001, The Independent, Estrada arrested for corruption, 181 words
April 18, 2001, The Independent, Twelve killed as troops clash with rebels, [article missing]
April 19, 2001, The Independent, Indonesia offers island refuge to Muslim rebels, [article missing]
April 25, 2001, The Independent, Islands at the Centre of a Six-Way Struggle, by Richard Lloyd Parry,
April 25, 2001, The Independent, Estrada arrested after warrant is issued,
April 26, 2001, The Independent, Estrada Arrested over $80M State Corruption, by Richard Lloyd Parry,
May 1, 2001, AP / The Independent, Police question Philippines opposition senator,
May 1, 2001, The Independent, Two killed as Estrada supporters storm the barricades, by Paul Alexander
May 1, 2001, The Independent, Philippine police arrest opposition leaders after bloody protests,
May 2, 2001, The Independent, Manila: ‘State of Rebellion’: The Actor and the Economist, by Richard Lloyd Parry, 288 words
May 2, 2001, The Independent, Manila: `State of Rebellion' Declared in Philippines; by Richard Lloyd Parry, 700+ words
May 4, 2001, The Independent, Philippines rebels ‘plotted deaths', 202 words
May 7, 2001, The Independent, 'Order restored' in Philippines, 191 words
May 14, 2001, The Independent, Five die in Philippine fighting, 200 words
May 28, 2001, The Independent, Gunmen Take Tourists Hostage in Philippines, by Richard Lloyd Parry,
May 28, 2001, The Independent, Masked gunmen seize tourists in Philippines, by Richard Lloyd Parry
May 29, 2001, The Independent, Islamic rebels threaten to kill hostages if military attempt rescue, by Richard Lloyd Parry,
May 29, 2001, The Independent, Philippines President Vows to `Wipe Out' Islamic Rebels Holding 20 Tourists, by Richard Lloyd Parry,
May 30, 2001, The Independent, Rebels threaten to kill hostages, 197 words
May 31, 2001, The Independent, Grenades fear for Philippines hostages, by Richard Lloyd Parry,
May 31, 2001, AP / The Independent, Hostages reportedly seen in grenade­lined boat, by Adam Brown,
June 1, 2001, AP / The Independent, Philippines military clashes with kidnappers, by Jim Gomez,
June 1, 2001, The Independent, Filipino rebels say hostages killed, 183 words
June 2, 2001, The Independent, Philippines hostages plead for attacks to end, by Richard Lloyd Parry,
June 3, 2001, The Independent, 'Survivor' flop deepens ITV crisis; by Jane Robins,
June 3, 2001, The Independent, Philippino hostages caught in gun battle,
June 11, 2001, The Independent, Soldiers Find Mutilated Bodies of Filipino Hostages, by Richard Lloyd Parry,
June 11, 2001, The Independent, Rebel threat to behead hostages, 182 words
June 11, 2001, The Independent, Rebel leader threatens to kill American in Philippines,
June 12, 2001, The Independent, Kidnapped Americans get last-ditch reprieve, by Richard Lloyd Parry,
June 13, 2001, The Independent, Muslim Filipino guerrillas claim to have killed American hostage, by Kathy Marks,
June 14, 2001, The Independent, American may have been beheaded, 180 words,
June 16, 2001, The Independent, Two die, dozens hurt in blast, 190 words
June 19, 2001, The Independent, Kidnappers in plea over hostages, 184 words
June 23, 2001, The Independent, 'Curb money-launderers' warning, 201 words
June 25, 2001, The Independent, Philippines volcano forces exodus, by Richard Lloyd Parry,
June 28, 2001, The Independent, Malaysia Helpless to Fight off Pirate Raids, by Richard Lloyd Parry,
July 8, 2001, The Independent, Deadly storm strikes, 172 words
July 10, 2001, The Independent, Filipino hostage leader is captured, by Richard Lloyd Parry,
July 11, 2001, The Independent, Estrada refuses to enter a plea on corruption charges, by Carmina Reyes,
July 15, 2001, The Independent, Muslim rebels held, 160 words
July 27, 2001, The Independent, Volcano forces thousands to flee, 172 words
July 30, 2001, The Independent, Book revealing US role in Indonesian killings is suppressed, by Andrew Buncombe,
August 4, 2001, The Independent, Extremists behead four in Philippines, by Dirk Beveridge,
August 19, 2001, The Independent, Manila hotel fire victims trapped by window bars, by Andrew Buncombe,
August 25, 2001, The Independent, Philippines army 'took terror bribe', by Richard Lloyd Parry,
August 29, 2001, Associated Press / The Independent, Missionary shot dead in Philippines,
August 29, 2001, The Independent, Hand grenade game kills four, 187 words
September 11, 2001, The Independent, Filipino Nurses Tell of Exploitation and Abuse in Private Care Homes, 630 words
September 13, 2001, The Independent, We Israelis Must Not Be Seduced by the `Great Satan' of Fanatical Hatred, by Amos Oz,
September 15,, 2001, The Independent, Arrests, Rumour and False Alarms as Manhunt Spans the World, by Andrew Gumbel Rome,
September 11, 2001, The Independent, Revealed for the First Time, the Truth about the World's Most Wanted Man; by Chris Blackhurst,
September 21, 2001, The Independent, The Suspects - the Men Who Brought the World to Brink of War, by Andrew Gumbel,
September 25, 2001, The Independent, The West Battles to Root out Network of Terror Cells ; the Target, by Raymond Whitaker,
September 26, 2001, The Independent, Freezing the Finances of Terrorists Is Not as Easy as Bush May Think, by Chris Blackhurst,
September 30, 2001, The Independent, Laundering body on terrorist alert, by Heather Tomlinson, 391 words
September 30, 2001, The Independent, Why America the Giant Will Always Make Enemies, by Hugh Brogan,
October 5, 2001, The Independent, Kidnap killings raise alarm in Philippines, by Oliver Teves,
October 6, 2001, The Independent, Headless skeleton may be that of US hostage, by Kathy Marks,
October 6, 2001, The Independent, Las Vegas Identified as the Hub for the Terrorists, by Andrew Gumbel,
October 11, 2001, The Independent, Anti-US Protesters Try to Storm Jakarta Parliament ; Muslim Reaction, by Kathy Marks,
October 11, 2001, The Independent, US Discloses Plans to Open New Fronts in War on Terror, by Donald Macintyre,
October 11, 2001, The Independent, US general will go to Philippines as Bush fulfils his pledge for a war without limits, Rupert Cornwell
October 13, 2001, The Independent, Protesters Take to Streets across the Islamic World
October 16, 2001, The Independent, Philippine protesters burn US and British flags in support of Bin Laden,
October 13, 2001, The Independent, Philippines opens ‘truth hotlines', 182 words
October 17, 2001, The Independent, Imelda Marcos charged over 'secret accounts', by Kathy Marks
October 18, 2001, The Independent, Gunmen abduct Italian missionary, 176 words
October 19, 2001, The Independent, Health - Psychological Illness May Be Worst Effect of Bioterrorism, by Jeremy Laurance,
October 23, 2001, The Independent, 55 Brigade - Bin Laden's Foreign Legion the Main Target for US and Friendly Forces,
November 2, 2001, The Independent, Malaysian premier's snub to gay minister, by Marie Woolf,
November 12, 2001, The Independent, Indonesian rebel chief abducted and killed, by Lely T Djuhari
November 20, 2001, The Independent, Philippines peace deal shattered as 55 die in Muslim uprising, by James Palmer,
November 27, 2001, AP / The Independent, US missionary couple tells of hostage ordeal, by Jim Gomez,
December 10, 2001, The Independent, Malaysia to flog 'illegals' in migration crackdown, by Kathy Marks,
March 8, 2002, The Independent, Suharto's son is charged in plot to murder judge,
April 11, 2002, The Independent, Senators launch inquiry into army torture claims, by Jim Gomez,
April 22, 2002, The Independent, Philippines bomb blasts leave at least 14 dead, by Paul Alexander,
April 29, 2002, The Independent, Mob kills 12 Christians in Indonesia, by James Palmer,
May 24, 2002, The Independent, Philippines guerrilla leader is arrested, by Jim Gomez
June 8, 2002, The Independent, American dies in bungled attempt to rescue hostages held in Philippines, by Kathy Marks,
June 22, 2002, The Independent, Philippine rebel chief 'shot dead', by Andrew Buncombe,
June 29, 2002, AP / The Independent, Filipino commandos clash with Abu Sayyaf rebels, by Oliver Teves,
August 22, 2002, AP / The Independent, Muslim extremists behead Jehovah's Witnesses,
August 22, 2002, The Independent, Filipino rebels kidnap Avon sales team, by Kathy Marks,
August 23, 2002, The Independent, Jehovah's Witnesses beheaded by Filipino rebels, by Kathy Marks,
October 25, 2002, The Independent, America Must Understand Why the Third World Still Distrusts Its Power, by Kaizer Nyatsumba,
October 28, 2002, The Independent, Bin Laden Web Link Registered in Suffolk;, by Chris Blackhurst,
October 29, 2002, The Independent, Cleric suspected of Bali bombing taken from hospital for questioning,
October 29, 2002, The Independent, Philippines bomb blast kills six, 175 words
November 2, 2002, The Independent, Indonesian police shift hunt for Bali bombers to Java,
November 3, 2002, The Independent, Jakarta man arrested for Bali nightclub bombings,
November 7, 2002, The Independent, Indonesian police arrest suspected owner of Bali bomb van,
November 8, 2002, The Independent, Police say van owner has confessed to helping attack nightclub,
November 8, 2002, The Independent, Libya - Gaddafi's Son Joins Fight to Free Detained Aid Workers,
November 9, 2002, The Independent, Bali bombers 'aimed to kill Americans',
November 9, 2002, The Independent, Storm in Philippines Feared to Have Killed 350, by Erik De Castro,
November 10, 2002, The Independent, Fresh arrests in swoop on Bali bomber's village,
November 11, 2002, Ind., The Critics: FILM STUDIES - Some Light Relief in the Heart of Darkness,
November 11, 2002, The Independent, Two die and 15 missing in Manila plane crash,
November 12, 2002, The Independent, Bali bombing suspect 'studied under cleric linked to al-Qa'ida',
November 14, 2002, The Independent, Chief suspect in Bali attack 'delighted' with carnage,
November 15, 2002, Independent, Hostages - Confusion over Plight of Detained Western Aid Workers,
November 16, 2002, The Independent, Indonesian police confound sceptics with speed as they crack terror cell behind bombing,
November 18, 2002, Police name mastermind of Kuta nightclub bombings as senior figure in terror group,
November 18, 2002, Independent, Children Had Gun Lessons at Terror School ; Al-Qa'ida, Harry Burton,
November 22, 2002, The Independent, Police arrest the 'mastermind' of Bali bombings,
November 22, 2002, The Independent, Marcos widow sues for pounds 270m, 171 words
November 23, 2002, The Independent, Bali bombing was a suicide mission, suspect claims,
November 25, 2002, The Independent, Bin Laden film found in bomb suspect's home,
January 1, 2003, The Independent / AP, 10 killed in Philippines grenade attack,
February 3, 2003, The Independent, Pair held after parading 'Jesus and Virgin Mary', by Lely Djuhari,
February 10, 2003, The Independent, Murdered child found hanging in guava tree,
February 12, 2003, The Independent, On live TV, Bali suspect tells how he made bombs,
March 4, 2003, The Independent, American among 18 killed in Philippines blast,
March 5, 2003, The Independent, Bomb attack kills 19 at airport in Philippines,
April 23, 2003, The Independent, Indonesian terror suspects held as Islamist trial opens,

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January 30, 2001, The Independent, Toppled Estrada had 15 bank accounts,

Eduardo de los Angeles, leader of a group of prosecutors in the government ombudsman's office investigating ill–gotten wealth, graft and corruption, said there is evidence that former president Estrada had 15 accounts in 15 banks – nearly every one operating in the Philippines – under six aliases.

Officials so far have found a total of 10 billion to 15 billion ($200 to $300 million) of unexplained wealth in the various accounts, which do not include dollar–denominated accounts linked to Estrada and mansions or accounts in the names of his acknowledged mistresses, de los Angeles said.

One of those women, Laarni Enriquez, had 600 million pesos ($12 million) in one account, he said.
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January 31, 2001, The Independent, Philippines' new leader vows to 'crush' plotters, by Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Correspondent,

The psychological war between the President of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and the man she drove from power deepened yesterday when she vowed to "crush" any threats to her government and to bring to justice her predecessor, Joseph Estrada.

"The enemies of the state continue to destabilise our duly constituted government by machinations and black propaganda," said Mrs Macapagal Arroyo in an address broadcast nationally before the evening television news. "Proceeds of ill-gotten wealth are being used to erode the credibility of this government and to subvert our hard-earned freedoms.

"Should you, however, persist in your evil designs, I say to you: you can try but you will fail. You cannot win against the people. So, I warn you, think twice. I said it before and I will say it again, I am not a happy warrior, but if forced, I have a sworn duty to protect and defend the Constitution above everything else. I shall crush you."

Ms Macapagal Arroyo's government has been haunted by rumours of a counter-coup since her swearing in 11 days ago after military defections and massive street demonstrations forced Mr Estrada out of the presidential palace. Despite his humiliating exit, he has never made a formal acknowledgement of his resignation. Legal complaints have been filed with the Supreme Court, asserting Ms Macapagal Arroyo is merely standing in for Mr Estrada in her capacity as elected Vice-President and that constitutionally he remains head of state.

But legal teams are also gathering evidence against Mr Estrada and last night his successor insisted he would be brought to justice. "One thing is non-negotiable," she said. "Charges will be pursued. We will be fair. We will give the former president his day in court. But I will not allow his allies to smear and perhaps destabilise our government."

Since peaceful demonstrators drove the dictator Ferdinand Marcos into exile in 1986, coups have become a feature of political life in the Philippines, although until the toppling of Mr Estrada this month none has been successful. During the six-year presidency of Mr Marcos's successor, Corazon Aquino, no fewer than seven military takeovers were unsuccessfully attempted, several of them masterminded by an officer named Gregorio Honasan who, far from being executed or disgraced, survived to sit in the present Senate.

Last Thursday, Ms Macapagal Arroyo responded to a question about the coup rumours by telephoning one of the suspected plotters during a press conference: the general in question assured her that no such plans were under consideration. But her address last night is clearly another attempt to nip in the bud any hostile challenge by bringing to public and international attention hostile machinations behind the scenes.

One of Mr Estrada's sons admitted yesterday that his father has his supporters in the military but denied he was giving them encouragement. "We hear things that there are movements," Joseph Victor G Ejercito said. "If there are, we don't have anything to do with that... The President is well-loved by the military. It is common knowledge that a lot of junior officers are not happy... We will fight the legal way, peaceful and political."

The fight became all the more bitter yesterday when a group of lawyers preparing charges against Mr Estrada accused him of mysteriously accumulating 10 to 15 billion pesos (£135m to £200m) during his three years in power. "We have already uncovered about six fictitious names in different accounts in different banks," one of the lawyers, Eduardo de los Angeles, said at a press conference. "In almost all the banks, [Estrada] has either a numbered account or an account under an alias."

A legal argument about secret bank documents was what brought about the collapse of Mr Estrada's impeachment trial in the Senate two weeks ago, the event that provoked crowds of outraged demonstrators to take to the street. Ricardo Nepomuceno, the main prosecuting lawyer, said: "We have only scratched the surface of what is the hidden wealth of [Estrada]."

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February 1, 2001, The Independent, I am alive, well and still the President, declares Estrada, by Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Correspondent

Joseph Estrada, the former president of the Philippines who was deposed a fortnight ago in a popular coup, insisted yesterday he was still the country's legitimate head of state and promised to use all legal means to win back his office.

"I left Malacanang [the presidential palace] but not my presidency," he told a gathering of about 2,000 of his supporters. "I remain the duly elected president, now on leave. I am not disposed to leaving a legacy of a banana republic where presidents are changed on the basis of acoup d'état or a withdrawal of support by the military."

The new President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, was sworn in 12 days ago as Mr Estrada left the palace in a barge to scenes of weeping among aides within the building and jubilant celebrations among the tens of thousands of demonstrators outside. He never made any formal statement of resignation, and yesterday made it clear he regards Ms Macapagal Arroyo, his vice-president, as a caretaker only.

"Let us be clear that I left Malacanang to prevent bloodshed," said Mr Estrada, a former actor who has lost none of his theatrical flair. "I have not resigned. I have not been convicted in the impeachment trial, and as you can see I have no permanent disability. I am still very strong. And it is also very obvious that I am very much alive."

He denounced the charges of corruption being prepared against him and promised not to go into exile: "I have lived here. Here I will die."

A week ago, the concern among the new government was that Mr Estrada would indeed flee abroad to escape from justice but now many must be wishing he would. His insistence that he remains president may be no more than a legal ploy intended to obstruct attempts to prosecute him – under the constitution a sitting president can be tried only in a Senate impeachment trial, a course of action which failed.

But there are persistent rumours that sympathetic officers in the armed forces are preparing to take up arms in a counter-coup on their former commander-in-chief's behalf. These were denied by Mr Estrada yesterday.
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February 3, 2001, The Independent, Six–year–old stepdaughter of Briton freed by soldiers,

A 6–year–old girl kidnapped three weeks ago was rescued by soldiers who surrounded the southern Philippine village where she was held, a military spokesman said today.

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February 3, 2001, The Independent, April, 6, rescued by soldiers in Philippines,

A six-year-old girl kidnapped in the Philippines almost a month ago has been rescued, it was reported last night.

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February 4, 2001, The Independent, Girl, 6, rescued from Philippine kidnap ordeal,

The six-year old girl held for three weeks by kidnappers in the southern Philippines was on her way to a new life with her British stepfather last night, after being rescued by soldiers late on Friday.

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February 6, 2001, The Independent, Philippine president names vice president,

President Gloria Macapagal–Arroyo named a chief opponent of her predecessor as her vice president today in a nod to his homeland – the poor southern region of Mindanao.
[missing text]
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February 6, 2001, The Independent, Ousted Estrada files lawsuit against successor,

Former President Joseph Estrada filed a suit with the Supreme Court in Manila today to question the legitimacy of his successor. Estrada's lawyer Rene Saguisag said the petition is the first direct challenge to the presidency of Gloria Macapagal–Arroyo, who was sworn in January 20, the same day swelling street protests forced Estrada to leave the presidential palace. "We believe that Gloria usurped the office of permanent president. She is only acting president," Saguisag said. In the petition, which is meant "to test one's entitlement to the office," Estrada made a commitment that if he wins,... more »

[article missing]

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April 13, 2001, The Independent, Philippines Forces Rescue American Hostage in Raid on Rebel Hide- Out, by Paul Alexander, 587 words

PHILIPPINE TROOPS raided a jungle hide-out yesterday and rescued Jeffrey Schilling, an American, from the Muslim rebels who threatened to behead him, military officials said.

Brigadier-General Diomedio Villanueva, in charge of a 10-day series of assaults on Abu Sayyaf rebels on the southern island of Jolo, said Mr Schilling, 25, was in good shape but several rebels were killed or wounded. The army said that sporadic clashes continued for hours the rescued hostage was evacuated to a military hospital in Jolo city.

Mr Schilling, a Muslim convert and resident of California, was taken hostage when he visited the rebels' camp on Jolo on 31 August with his wife, Ivy Osani. Ms Osani, a cousin of one of the rebels, was not held.

The Abu Sayyaf, the smallest of the three rebel groups in the Philippines, gained international notoriety last year after seizing dozens of hostages, many of them Westerners. It released all but Roland Ulla, a Filipino diving resort worker, after allegedly receiving multi-million-dollar ransoms.

The Abu Sayyaf claims it is fighting for a separate Islamic state in the southern Philippines, but the government of the mostly Catholic country regards it as a bandit gang.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said her government would not hold peace talks with the group although it did intend to negotiate with the Muslim secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the communist National Democratic Front. "[The Abu Sayyaf] must surrender if they value their lives," she said yesterday.

A statement from the American embassy said: "The US government is thrilled with the news of Mr Schilling's safe release and has expressed its deep appreciation to President Arroyo and General Villanueva for their valiant efforts over the past seven and a half months to free Mr Schilling."

The Philippine government launched "all-out war" on the rebels on Jolo on 2 April, after the rebels said Mr Schilling's head would be sent to President Arroyo as a birthday present.

The threat prompted Mr Schilling's mother to fly to the Philippines to make a personal plea for his release. Minutes before the deadline a week ago, she was connected by a radio station to the Abu Sayyaf leader holding her son. He said that Mr Schilling could be killed at any time if the government did not call off the military operation. The offensives continued on the jungle-covered island about 940km (580 miles) south of Manila. AP
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April 17, 2001, The Independent, Estrada arrested for corruption, 181 words

JOSEPH ESTRADA, the former president of the Philippines, was arrested on charges of perjury and corruption yesterday, three months after being driven from power in a popular coup. He was released after paying bail. He is the first president to be arrested on criminal charges. END
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April 18, 2001, The Independent, Twelve killed as troops clash with rebels,

At least 12 men were killed in the Philippines when government forces and Muslim extremists clashed as troops pressed an operation to free the rebels' last remaining hostage.
[article missing]

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April 19, 2001, The Independent, Indonesia offers island refuge to Muslim rebels,

Indonesia has offered a tiny island in waters off its capital as a refuge for the leaders of a separatist Muslim rebellion in neighbouring Philippines. President Abdurrahman Wahid said he was willing to grant asylum to Salamat Hashim, chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a group fighting for self–rule in the southern...more
[article missing]
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April 25, 2001, The Independent, Islands at the Centre of a Six-Way Struggle, by Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Correspondent, 549 words
TO THE rest of the world, apart from the handful of sailors and fighter pilots who defend them, the islands known as the Spratlys are nothing more than a scattering of dots on a map. The combined surface area of the 230 islets, rocks, reefs and atolls scattered across the centre of the South China Sea is only three square miles.

They bear romantic and exotic names: Mischief Reef, Sin Cowe Island and Half Moon Shoal. The archetypal cartoon desert-island- with-palm-tree but this impression of isolated obscurity is misleading.

In a region with more than its share of military tensions and territorial disputes, these islands are the most disputed of all. If the nightmare scenario of a superpower war in Asia was ever to come true, the Spratly Islands might very well be where it all starts. Two countries, above all, find themselves in increasingly tense rivalry there: China and America.

Half the world's merchant traffic by tonnage passes the Spratlys, two- thirds of it crude oil. Control of the sea passage through the South China Sea means power over some of the biggest and fastest- growing economies in the world. This makes the status of the Spratlys a matter of international concern.

The Spratly problem is a six-way dispute. Vietnam, China and Taiwan claim all the islands; Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei claim some. Every few months the tensions in the Spratlys express themselves in diplomatic and, less often, in military conflict.

In 1976, the Chinese forcibly seized the Paracel Island, north of the Spratlys, from Vietnam. In 1988 the same two countries fought a sea battle over Johnson Reef in which 70 Vietnamese sailors died. This month, the Vietnamese and Chinese held inconclusive discussions in Hanoi on the problem, and the Philippines air force recently buzzed the Chinese garrison after reports that the Chinese had installed sophisticated communications there.

Dr Mark Valencia, a specialist on maritime politics at the East- West centre in Hawaii, said: "The upshot is that Beijing could be intent on transferring large areas of the South China Sea from a regime in which warships have immunity from its jurisdiction to one in which permission is required. China cannot enforce such a regime now. But when it is strong enough, it may try to do so."
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April 25, 2001, The Independent, Estrada arrested after warrant is issued,

With a warrant in hand, Philippines officials have arrested former president Joseph Estrada at his home for alleged corruption in office as thousands of supporters vowed to protect their disgraced hero or go to jail with him.

A special anti–graft court, the Sandiganbayan, ordered Estrada's arrest for plunder, a non–bailable capital offence that is the most serious of eight charges that the former action film star faces.

As word of the warrant spread outside Estrada's home in Manila's swank Greenhills area, riot police used water cannons, shields and truncheons to disperse about 200 rowdy supporters who linked arms to prevent his arrest.

There were no arrests, but protesters said some of their companions were hurt in the melee as a police helicopter hovered overhead. Some demonstrators used vehicles to block the narrow road leading to the house, and one windshield was smashed.

Hundreds more Estrada supporters rallied outside the anti–graft court grounds, not far from where demonstrations were being held by his detractors.

Estrada lawyer Raymond Fortun, minutes after learning of the warrant, repeated his pledge that Estrada would surrender. Fortun had asked the court to provide at least three hours' notice to give the former president time to take a bath, pack his clothes and say goodbye to loved ones.

Plunder – defined as systematic corruption in office with gains of more than 50 million pesos (US$1 million) – is punishable by death. However, it is considered highly unlikely Estrada will be executed in the politically charged case.

The warrant also orders the arrest of at least eight other people for plunder, including businessmen and Estrada friend Charlie Atong Ang, Estrada lawyer Edward Serapio and others accused of involvement in facilitating the delivery of illegal payoffs to the former president.

Garchitorena said the copy of the warrant he had did not include Estrada's son Jinggoy, who was also indicted on plunder charges. He said the omission was likely a clerical error and promised to clarify Jinggoy's status soon.

Estrada left the presidential palace January 20 among mass street protests after a six–week impeachment trial stalled.

On April 4, he was indicted on accusations that he pocketed US$82 million in kickbacks and payoffs during 31 months in office. His indictment came after the Supreme Court unanimously rejected his appeals of a ruling that stripped away his presidential immunity.

Last week, Estrada turned himself in after the court issued an arrest warrant on the lesser charges of perjury and graft. It was believed to be the first time a warrant has been issued for a Philippine leader. Estrada posted bond and was fingerprinted. Arraignment was scheduled for May 17.

Estrada was also charged with plunder, three other counts of violating the anti–graft law, illegal use of an alias and violation of the law on ethical standards. Chief investigator Aniano Desierto asked the court last week to let him withdraw all four graft charges and the ethical standards violation so prosecutors can focus on the plunder charge.

Sandiganbayan rules say a defendant should be detained at a jail nearest the court. That would be the jail in suburban Quezon City, which is overcrowded with about 1,800 inmates charged with murder, rape, kidnapping and other common crimes.

But Sandiganbayan President Justice Francis Garchitorena said Estrada will be kept in a private cell at Camp Crame, the national police headquarters in Manila.

"In the mind of the court, the president needs all the security for his own sake," Garchitorena said. "He will stay in jail unless (courts) decide there is less than strong evidence."

He said Estrada would not be allowed to take his mobile phone to jail and will have no special treatment.

"The only concession that has been given to him is that he will be in a cell of his own," he said. "He will not be detained in officers' quarters, that's for sure."

The anti–graft court earlier ruled out house arrest.

Estrada's downfall began when accusations of corruption led to a six–week Senate impeachment trial this winter.

The trial was aborted in January when senators voted against opening a sealed envelope that prosecutors alleged would tie Estrada to a multimillion–dollar bank account. The Senate vote was followed by mass protests demanding that Estrada resign, and he left the palace through the back door on January 20. The Supreme Court ruled that he had effectively resigned at that point.


With a warrant in hand, Philippines officials have arrested former president Joseph Estrada at his home for alleged corruption in office.

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April 26, 2001, The Independent, Estrada Arrested over $80M State Corruption, by Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Correspondent,

THE FORMER president of the Philippines, Joseph Estrada, continued his spectacular fall from grace when he was arrested at his home in Manila yesterday on capital charges of plundering the state.

Several hundred supporters of Mr Estrada blocked the gates to his villa in a wealthy Manila suburb, before being dispersed by riot police who had to clamber over the outer fence in order to open its gates.

Inside, the former president's relatives wept as he was taken away by police generals in a dark van while helicopters hovered overhead.
Some 8,000 more protesters assembled in front of Camp Crame, the police headquarters where he is being held in a private cell pending his trial. They tore up election posters, ripped out iron railings and blocked traffic along the main road before being dispersed by police water cannons.

Philippine television cameras inside the police camp showed Mr Estrada, 64, having his fingerprints and his photograph taken before being removed to his cell.

Although it is highly unlikely that he will ever be executed, no bail is allowed for those accused of economic plunder.

Last week, he was charged with perjury and corruption, although yesterday's allegations are the most serious by far. The prosecutors in the Philippines' special anti-corruption court claim that he accumulated more than 4bn pesos ($80m) during his three years in office.

Mr Estrada has refuted all the allegations against him. "I was denied the due process of law," he told a television interviewer by telephone from the detention centre. "They're making a mockery of the Bill of Rights of the Philippine Constitution. I will face all these charges ... I know that truth will triumph in the end. Our Constitution will prevail."

His son, Jinggoy, occupies another cell in the same compound, and the Philippine media have dwelt in detail on the spartan conditions which he faces in custody.

In another telephone interview, with the BBC, Mr Estrada described his new home as "just an ordinary room with a bed".

He added: "It is air-conditioned, though, so it is good enough. I can bear it."

Mr Estrada's troubles began last October when accusations of corruption led to the first ever impeachment trial for an Asian leader.

When pro-Estrada senators forced the trial to be abandoned, hundreds of thousands of angry Filipinos poured on to the streets of Manila in protest, culminating in a peaceful coup by his own military commanders. After he left the presidential palace, his deputy, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, was sworn in as President.

Mr Estrada has always insisted that he was temporarily stepping aside, but that argument - and the immunity from prosecution which it would have conferred - were rejected by the Supreme Court.

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May 1, 2001, AP / The Independent, Police question Philippines opposition senator,

Police in the Phillipines questioned opposition senator Juan Ponce Enrile, one of three senators the government earlier accused of inciting protests at the presidential palace which left three people dead.

Police intelligence chief Reynaldo Berroya told reporters Mr Enrile, one of the key figures in the 1986 "people power" revolution which toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos, had surrendered at his home and was taken to police headquarters.

"He will stay here in the meantime until he is formally turned over to the criminal investigation and detection group," Berroya said.
State prosecutors have said the government wants to arrest key allies of ousted leader Joseph Estrada, who is facing corruption charges after he was arrested last week.

Police and prosecutors accuse Enrile, Miriam Defensor Santiagio and Gregorio Honasan - all senators seeking re-election on May 14 - and Panfilo Lacson, police chief under Estrada, of inciting protesters to march on the palace.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo earlier declared the Philippines was in a state of rebellion after the attacks on the Malacanang palace. Estrada supporters demanding that she step down had gathered at a religious shrine since his arrest.

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May 1, 2001, The Independent, Two killed as Estrada supporters storm the barricades, by Paul Alexander in Manila,

AT LEAST two people were believed to have been killed as supporters of the ousted Philippines president, Joseph Estrada, broke through lines of riot police defending the presidential palace in Manila early today to demand the resignation of his successor.

The protest, during which police fired warning shots and tear gas canisters, came hours after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said a coup threat against her government had fizzled out through lack of support.

Reporters saw at least seven people who had been wounded by what appeared to be gunfire, and Ms Arroyo's chief of staff, Renato Corona, said he had a report of one policeman dead and scores wounded. One protester was said to have killed.

Marchers used a dumper truck to break through an initial line of riot police who dropped their plastic shields and scattered. Volleys of shots later rang out from a second line of officers, and again when the crowds reached the palace and tried to force their way into the fenced compound.

Some of the estimated 20,000 marchers had picked up the abandoned shields and raided a construction site for scrap wood to use as clubs. They then broke through a third police line, the last before a phalanx of heavily armed officers outside the presidential palace.

Breaking into three groups, they managed to get to the gates, only to get pushed back, first by warning shots, then by tear gas and water cannons. Two helicopter gunships hovered overhead.

Mr Estrada's backers have staged non-stop protests since he was arrested last Wednesday on corruption allegations. He has been undergoing medical tests at a hospital, but was airlifted to a special detention centre early today, local television station reported. (AP)


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May 1, 2001, The Independent, Philippine police arrest opposition leaders after bloody protests,

by Jim Gomez, AP

Police began arresting opposition leaders and the government declared "a state of rebellion" today after clashes between police and backers of jailed former President Joseph Estrada killed at least four people and injured more than 100.

"This is not just a demonstration. This is a rebellion," government spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said.

He said the declaration by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, restricted to Manila, allows her to use the military to fight the protests and make three–day arrests without warrants.

Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan said security forces "broke the back" of the pro–Estrada protests when they dispersed the lingering rallies this afternoon. But he said the military may set up checkpoints and was discussing a curfew.

"I can say to all of you that your government is (in) control," Arroyo said as she made several TV appearances aimed at easing public concerns. "The enemies are on the run.

Thousands of Estrada supporters, armed with rocks and clubs, skirmished with police around the presidential palace. Fighting subsided this afternoon after many protesters backed off, setting fire to a backhoe, four vans, a police car and a fire truck.

At least 12 policemen, were injured, police said. Red Cross officials said they treated 115 injured civilians on the scene but many more were treated by government health officials and other aid agencies.

Justice Secretary Hernando Perez ordered the arrest of at least 11 key opposition figures today, including senators Gringo Honasan and Juan Ponce Enrile, former Estrada spokesman Ernesto Maceda and former national police chief Panfilo Lacson.

Enrile, one of Estrada's most prominent allies, turned himself in, as did Police Director Victor Batac and army Brig. Gen. Marcelino.

Maceda told ABS–CBN television he would turn himself in whenever police want. But Lacson, who is running in May 14 Senate elections, said he told his lawyers to question the arrest order.

Col. Reynaldo Berroya, the police intelligence chief, said the arrests were ordered in connection with the protests but did not outline the accusations.

Most of those on the wanted list have large followings among the pro–Estrada protesters.

Today marked the second time in as many days that Arroyo survived an attempt to force her from office and reinstall Estrada. She claimed he and his allies incensed supporters in an effort to seize power for their own benefit.

Arroyo earlier accused key opposition figures of plotting to overthrow her and establish a junta.

"The vandalism, robbery and injury and deaths are the work of these politicians," Arroyo, looking exhausted after a second consecutive sleepless night, said in a brief nationally televised statement.

"They should be blamed. It is clear that their theme is to bring down the legitimate government so ... they would establish their own junta."
Pre–dawn clashes accompanied the 15–kilometre (10–mile) march to the presidential palace from a shrine to the 1986 "people power" revolt that toppled late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

At least two policemen were killed and scores injured as the crowd, which had been rallying for Estrada's release from custody on corruption charges, forced its way through several police lines and stoned a policeman who already was laying injured and bloody.

One protester was fatally shot in the face; no details were available on the fourth reported death. The reports were carried by radio and TV networks.

Marchers drove a dump truck through an initial line of riot police who dropped their plastic shields and scattered. Some of the estimated 20,000 marchers picked up the shields and raided a construction site for scrap wood for clubs.

They managed to get to the palace gates and started throwing stones, only to get pushed back, first by warning shots, then by tear gas and water cannons. Two helicopter gunships hovered overhead.

Estrada was arrested last Wednesday on the capital offense of plunder for allegedly pocketing millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks in 31 months in office. After spending time in a cell, he has been undergoing medical tests at a hospital.

He was airlifted out this morning to a special detention center 60 kilometres (40 miles) south of Manila.

In a statement from jail, Estrada blamed the government for the violence and called for "calm and sobriety" from his supporters.

"The blood of these victims is now on the hands of those in power," he said. "They shall be accountable to our people and to the coming generations of Filipinos for this shameful and irresponsible act."

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'May 2, 2001, The Independent, Manila: ‘State of Rebellion’: The Actor and the Economist, by Richard Lloyd Parry, 288 words
...Joseph Estrada, the man she replaced as President of the Philippines, could hardly be a greater contrast. He is an overweight...year-old economist and a political outsider. Like the Philippines' first female president - Corazon Aquino, widow of a murdered...

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May 2, 2001, The Independent, Manila: `State of Rebellion' Declared in Philippines; New President Orders the Arrest of Political Rivals after Clashes with Estrada Supporters Leave Three Dead and More Than 100 Injured, by Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Correspondent,
700+ words THE PRESIDENT of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, ordered...presidential palace. At least two Philippines senators and several senior police...constituency has always been among the Philippines' poor, who elected him in 1998...

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'May 2, 2001, The Independent, State of rebellion' declared in Philippines, by Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Correspondent,

New President orders the arrest of political rivals after clashes with Estrada supporters leave three dead and more than 100 injured

The President of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, ordered the arrest of political opponents and declared a state of rebellion in Manila last night, after supporters of her imprisoned predecessor, Joseph Estrada, attempted to storm the presidential palace.

At least two Philippines senators and several senior police officers were being questioned in connection with the riots, in which three people were killed and more than a hundred injured. "The vandalism, robbery and injury and deaths are the work of these politicians," Mrs Arroyo said in a televised address to the nation after a sleepless night in her beleaguered palace. "They should be blamed. It is clear that their theme is to bring down the legitimate government so ... they would establish their own junta."

The list of those arrested included Juan Ponce Enrile and Gregorio Honasan, both members of the Senate and close allies of Mr Estrada, who was driven from power after even larger, but peaceful demonstrations in January.

Mr Estrada was taken into custody a week ago after his arrest on charges of economic plunder, potentially a capital crime. Crowds of his supporters have been agitating for his release ever since, but on Monday night the boisterous and intermittently violent protests developed into something bigger and more menacing.

Between 10,000 and 20,000 people gathered in the streets close to the President's Malacañang Palace, after marching from a Catholic shrine which is frequently the site of political demonstrations. The protesters hurled stones and drove a stolen truck through police lines. When they reached the palace gates they were driven back with tear gas, water cannon and warning shots, as helicopter gunships hovered above.

One policeman was reported to have been stoned to death, and two civilians were said to have been killed, including one who was shot in the face. The Red Cross reported that 113 people had been injured by the time the fighting fizzled out yesterday afternoon. The physical damage included burnt-out vans, trucks and police cars. The security forces were reported to be considering a curfew, and Mrs Arroyo declared a "state of rebellion" in the city of Manila.

The announcement entitles the armed forces to reinforce the police, who can hold suspects for up to three days without an arrest warrant. "We are in a state of rebellion," the government spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said. "These are deliberate moves to topple a government."
Last night, there was increased security at the police camp in central Manila where the arrested senators were being held.

Mr Estrada, who has been undergoing medical tests, was flown by helicopter to a detention centre 40 miles from Manila. In a statement released on his behalf by his political party, he said: "We must not give this regime any reason to further trample on our rights of assembly by using excessive force. We must not also give this regime an excuse to declare martial law to ensure its continued stay in power and to further inflict harm on its own people."

The riots early yesterday morning were the worst political violence that Manila has seen since the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos was driven into exile in 1986. They were very different from the peaceful demonstrations that brought Mrs Arroyo to power in January. Most of the participants then were middle-class Filipino professionals, along with priests, nuns and students.

Mr Estrada has a very different constituency from Mrs Arroyo. In his first career, as a film actor, he became famous for his portrayals of tough underdogs who fight their way back from scrapes. His constituency has always been among the Philippines' poor, who elected him in 1998.

His fall from power began when accusations of corruption last October led to an impeachment trial in the Senate. When pro-Estrada senators ­ including Mr Enrile and Mr Honasan ­ forced the trial to be abandoned, hundreds of thousands of Filipinos poured on to the streets of Manila in protest. Within four days they were joined by Mr Estrada's own military commanders, forcing him out of the presidential palace, which was taken over by Mrs Arroyo. He never signed a resignation letter and always insisted that he was temporarily stepping aside while his Vice-President took over in an acting capacity.

Yesterday, government spokesmen claimed to have found a document drafted by Mr Estrada, but unsigned, announcing his intention to return to the presidency after his period of "leave".

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May 4, 2001, The Independent, Philippines rebels ‘plotted deaths', 202 words

THE PEOPLE suspected of orchestrating an attempt to storm the Philippines presidential palace on Tuesday planned to kill President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her jailed predecessor, Joseph Estrada, the Justice Secretary alleged yesterday. Hernando Perez said at a hearing for two politicians accused of involvement in the unrest that the killings would have allowed the plotters to take power. END

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May 7, 2001, The Independent, ‘Order restored’ in Philippines, 191 words

THE PRESIDENT of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, said yesterday that public order had been restored, almost a week after she declared a state of rebellion. In that time, four people have died and more than 100 have been wounded in clashes between security forces and supporters of her detained predecessor, Joseph Estrada. END

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May 14, 2001, The Independent, Five die in Philippine fighting, 200 words

AT LEAST five people died and thousands fled their homes when fighting erupted between soldiers and armed groups on Pangutaran island in the southern Philippines, the armed forces said yesterday. The clashes broke out on Thursday when soldiers, backed by helicopters, tried to pacify two political clans. Whether the feud was related to today's legislative and local elections was unclear. END

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May 28, 2001, The Independent, Gunmen Take Tourists Hostage in Philippines, by Richard Lloyd Parry,
700+ words THE PHILIPPINES government faces another protracted...Military ships and planes from both the Philippines and Malaysia were hunting for the captives...A few hours after the attack, the Philippines air force spotted a boat believed to...
[Same text as below]
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May 28, 2001, The Independent, Masked gunmen seize tourists in Philippines, by Richard Lloyd Parry in Miri, Malaysia,







On a mission from God


The New Tribes Mission (NTM) ­ for which two of the captured Americans, Martin and Gracia Burnham, were working ­ was founded in 1942 to evangelise people in the remotest parts of the world, "reaching new tribes until the last tribe has been reached", as the group's slogan has it. More than 3,000 NTM missionaries operate all over the world.


The group is criticised in Papua New Guinea for destroying rich native cultures, by promising "the unending life of the saved with the Lord and the unending punishment of the unsaved".


But the missionaries have taken earthly punishment themselves. In 1993 three were kidnapped by rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. A multimillion dollar ransom was demanded and refused, and since then nothing has been heard of them.


Earlier this year, there were reports that they had been shot and killed two years ago, but these are being denied by the organisation.




The Philippines government faces another protracted and damaging foreign hostage crisis after 20 people ­ including three Americans ­ were snatched by masked gunmen from a luxury holiday resort in the south of the country.

Military ships and planes from both the Philippines and Malaysia were hunting for the captives last night, after the dawn raid on the island of Palawan, which lies between the two countries in the South China Sea.

The kidnappers, who escaped with the captives in a speedboat, are apparently members of Abu Sayyaf, the extremist Muslim group which received millions of dollars in ransom after kidnapping a group of foreign tourists and Filipinos from a Malaysian diving resort a year ago.

"Here we are in a hostage situation again, mounting the same type of operation that we did last year," General Edilberto Adan, a military spokesman, said wearily. "We are still in the early stages. The kidnappers have not reached their final destination. We hope they will not be able to reach that because it will make things harder."

A few hours after the attack, the Philippines air force spotted a boat believed to be carrying the kidnappers close to the maritime border with Malaysia, but apparently lost track of it by nightfall. The president of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, said immediately that no ransom would be paid this time, and sent her military chief of staff, General Diomedio Villanueva, to take charge of the operation.

"The President has given a very firm instruction that no negotiations for ransom will be made," General Adan said. "It would only serve to whet the appetites of these terrorists. No motive has been mentioned but it's possible that these foreign tourists will be held for some time."

The raid took place at about 5am yesterday at Dos Palmas, a luxury resort two hours by boat from the capital of Palawan province, Puerto Princesa.

It all happened in the space of a quarter of an hour. Witnesses described how the gunmen landed, burst into the resort's waterfront cottages and dragged out terrified guests. There were more than 20 raiders, who were wearing ski masks and carrying automatic rifles and a machine gun.

"The women were all crying. One of them was clinging to a small boy, her son," said Brando Cervantes, a local fisherman. "Some of the women were wearing only their sleeping clothes. The males were silent. They just obeyed whatever the gunmen told them to do." The gunmen had forced Mr Cervantes to guide them to the resort and cut the boat's engines before silently floating up to the resort's jetty. They quickly disarmed two security guards and took their radios, before bursting into seven of the resort's cottages, which are built on stilts over the water.

"Steel cabinets were forced open, glasses lay shattered on the floor," police inspector Rodolfo Amurao said.

"The personal possessions of the hostages were scattered around. Clothes were strewn everywhere. They had kicked the doors open to get their hostages. Their shoe prints were on the doors." The kidnappers even raided the cottage refrigerators and the resort's kitchen in search of food.

According to staff at the resort, the raiders spoke Tausug, a language spoken on Jolo island in the far south-west of the Philippines, where the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) is based.

The 20 captives included four workers at the resort, 13 ethnic Chinese Filipino tourists and three foreigners, believed to be Americans ­ Guillermo Sobrero, who was there with his Filipina girlfriend, and a married couple, Martin and Gracia Burnham, who worked as missionaries for the evangelical New Tribes Mission.

Kidnapping for ransom is a common way of making a living in the Philippines, especially in the southern region of Mindanao, where various Muslim groups have been fighting for decades for independence from the Christian-dominated government in Manila.

But two things make this incident especially serious: the apparent involvement of the Abu Sayyaf Group and the capture of American citizens. Abu Sayyaf were paid as much as $25m (£18m) for the release of more than a dozen foreign tourists last year ­ the last one was freed by the Philippine army only last month. Predictably, such success has only encouraged the group: yesterday was the third time in five days that suspected Abu Sayyaf members have been involved in violent attacks.

Last Tuesday, security guards at another luxury resort in Mindanao successfully fought off raiders armed with grenade launchers, who skirmished with pursuing military units over the next few days. Two days later, 42 people on a passenger ferry were hijacked near the Mindanao island of Basilan, where the ASG also has a base. All but four were later released. The group seems to have been taking advantage of the Philippines' ongoing election count, which is stretching the resources of the police and armed forces.

But in capturing three Americans, Abu Sayyaf ­ if it is them ­ has hit the jackpot. The only other American to be taken hostage by the group was Jeffrey Schilling, a black American Muslim who was held after visiting the group. His case attracted little attention or sympathy from Washington or the media. The case of the Burnhams will be harder to ignore.

Among Filipino Christians, the ASG are widely seen as bandits, but despite its hunger for ransoms the group does espouse a militant version of Islam. The group's late founder, Khaddafy Janjalani, studied in Libya and the group may have been funded by Colonel Gaddafi and the wealthy international terrorist Osama bin Laden.

So far all its foreign victims have survived but the group has frequently killed Filipino captives, including priests, and the Burnhams may be in danger because of their faith.

After its humiliation last year, Manila will be more uncompromising and is likely to attack the kidnappers as soon as they are found.


The Philippines government faces another protracted and damaging foreign hostage crisis after 20 people ­ including three Americans ­ were snatched by masked gunmen from a luxury holiday resort in the south of the country.

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May 29, 2001, The Independent, Islamic rebels threaten to kill hostages if military attempt rescue, by Richard Lloyd Parry, in Miri, Malaysian Borneo, and Associated Press writer

Abu Syyaf, the notorious Islamic rebel group, has said it will kill the 20 tourists it has taken hostage if the military attempts a rescue. The holidaymakers, who include three Americans, were abducted from a resort island in the Philippines on Sunday morning.

Despite an intensive military air and sea search for the hostages, who were snatched by motor boat from the island of Palawan, the kidnappers made a clean escape to their bases 300 miles (500km) away in the Sulu archipelago off the southernmost of the Philippines' main islands, Mindanao.

"We are admitting it, we are the ones who did it," Abu Sabaya, one of the group's "commanders", told a radio station in the Mindanao city of Zamboanga. "If you want to negotiate, it's up to you. We're not pushing for it."

But government and military spokesmen repeated their promise that they would not compromise with the kidnappers. "There will be no negotiations," said the armed forces spokesman, Brigadier General Edilberto Adan. "Once we pinpoint their area, we will cordon it, then launch an assault, but with the safety of the hostages in consideration."

The Philippines President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, vowed to destroy the Abu Sayyaf, saying she would not let up until "you are wiped out or you surrender".

Ms Arroyo, speaking on national television, also announced a 100 million peso (£1.4m) reward for information leading to the capture of the leaders and followers of the group who took part in the kidnappings. "I will finish what you started. Force against force. Arms against arms," the 55-year-old leader said. "This is what the challenge you hurled against me calls for. I will oblige you."

She also promised swift action to remedy a "blip" in the economy created by the kidnapping. "We must address this decisively to show the world that we can protect our citizens, visitors and investors," Arroyo told reporters at the presidential palace. "That is why we are working on the problem right now and to prevent it from happening again."

The hostages appear to have been divided between two groups of Abu Sayyaf guerrillas on the neighbouring jungle islands of Basilan and Jolo, both of them in the extreme south-west of the Philippines between Mindanao and Malaysian Borneo.

Last year, Manila spent months negotiating the release of another group of foreign and Filipino hostages who were snatched in a similar raid from a holiday resort in Malaysia.

Millions of dollars in ransom money was paid to Abu Sayyaf, but the crisis appeared to have been resolved when the last foreign hostage, an American Muslim convert named Jeffrey Schilling, was rescued by Filipino soldiers last month. The group had made repeated, and unfulfilled, threats to behead him if their ransom was not met.

"Let's not compare this with Jeffrey," Mr Sabaya said yesterday. "Jeffrey was a Muslim, that's why we had second thoughts about harming him. Now we have three Americans. Let's not embarrass each other."

During last year's hostage crisis, the group's members acquired a taste for publicity, none more so than Mr Sabaya, who gave numerous interviews to foreign and local journalists, several of whom he kidnapped for further ransoms.

Abu Sayyaf is the smaller of two armed groups fighting for an independent Muslim state in the southern Philippines, although it places a far stronger emphasis on the payment of ransoms than the fulfilment of its political agenda. Yesterday, Mr Sabaya made no explicit demands.

The radio broadcast, apparently made on a satellite telephone, also included a message from one of the American hostages, Martin Burnham, a missionary with the evangelical New Tribes Mission. He said: "We are safe, our needs are being met. We would like to appeal to all for a reasonable and safe negotiation."

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May 29, 2001, The Independent, Philippines President Vows to `Wipe Out' Islamic Rebels Holding 20 Tourists, by Richard Lloyd Parry,

ABU SAYYAF, the notorious Islamic rebel group, yesterday claimed responsibility for abducting 20 tourists, including three Americans, from a resort island in the Philippines on Sunday morning.

It came as no surprise but even so it was the last thing the Philippines and United States governments wanted to hear.

Despite an intensive military air and sea search for the hostages, who were snatched by motor boat from the island of Palawan, the kidnappers made a clean escape to their bases 300 miles (500km) away in the Sulu archipelago off the southernmost of the Philippines' main islands, Mindanao.

"We are admitting it, we are the ones who did it," Abu Sabaya, one of the group's "commanders", told a radio station in the Mindanao city of Zamboanga. "If you want to negotiate, it's up to you. We're not pushing for it."

But government and military spokesmen repeated their promise that they would not compromise with the kidnappers. "There will be no negotiations," said the armed forces spokesman, Brigadier General Edilberto Adan. "Once we pinpoint their area, we will cordon it, then launch an assault, but with the safety of the hostages in consideration."

The Philippines President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, vowed to destroy the Abu Sayyaf, saying she would not let up until "you are wiped out or you surrender".

Ms Arroyo, speaking on national television, also announced a 100 million peso (pounds 1.4m) reward for information leading to the capture of the leaders and followers of the group who took part in the kidnappings. "I will finish what you started. Force against force. Arms against arms," the 55-year- old leader said. "This is what the challenge you hurled against me calls for. I will oblige you."

The hostages appear to have been divided between two groups of Abu Sayyaf guerrillas on the neighbouring jungle islands of Basilan and Jolo, both of them in the extreme south-west of the Philippines between Mindanao and Malaysian Borneo.

Last year, Manila spent months negotiating the release of another group of foreign and Filipino hostages who were snatched in a similar raid from a holiday resort in Malaysia.

Millions of dollars in ransom money was paid to Abu Sayyaf, but the crisis appeared to have been resolved when the last foreign hostage, an American Muslim convert named Jeffrey Schilling, was rescued by Filipino soldiers last month. The group had made repeated, and unfulfilled, threats to behead him if their ransom was not met.

"Let's not compare this with Jeffrey," Mr Sabaya said yesterday. "Jeffrey was a Muslim, that's why we had second thoughts about harming him. Now we have three Americans. Let's not embarrass each other."

During last year's hostage crisis, the group's members acquired a taste for publicity, none more so than Mr Sabaya, who gave numerous interviews to foreign and local journalists, several of whom he kidnapped for further ransoms.

Abu Sayyaf is the smaller of two armed groups fighting for an independent Muslim state in the southern Philippines, although it places a far stronger emphasis on the payment of ransoms than the fulfilment of its political agenda. Yesterday, Mr Sabaya made no explicit demands.

The radio broadcast, apparently made on a satellite telephone, also included a message from one of the American hostages, Martin Burnham, a missionary with the evangelical New Tribes Mission. He said: "We are safe, our needs are being met. We would like to appeal to all for a reasonable and safe negotiation."

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May 30, 2001, The Independent, Rebels threaten to kill hostages, 197 words

MUSLIM REBELS holding 20 hostages in the Philippines threatened to kill them yesterday if the army attacked, prompting the government to impose a news blackout on military operations. The military, under orders from President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to use force against the Abu Sayyaf rebels behind Sunday's abductions, said they had not yet pinpointed their location. END

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May 31, 2001, The Independent, Grenades fear for Philippines hostages, by Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Correspondent,

Muslim rebels who kidnapped twenty tourists from a beach resort in the Philippines have been transporting them in a boat booby-trapped with hand grenades.

Local people reported seeing members of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) and their American and Filipino hostages off the remote Keenapusan island in the south-west Philippines, on a motorboat which was draped with a string of grenades.

The bombs were arranged so that a pull on the string would cause them all to explode, according to a report on a local radio station.

Meanwhile, the Philippines air force has begun airdropping thousands of posters offering a reward of two million US dollars for information leading to the arrest of the kidnappers, who have pulled off a series of high-profile kidnaps in the past two years. One of the officers responsible for the search operation, Brigadier-General Romeo Dominguez, described it as a "rescue and destroy" mission.
"We just need one initial positive contact and we will get them," he said.

But it has already been five days since the kidnappers snatched their hostages, and in that time they have run rings around a combined air, sea and land effort military search operation. The seventeen Filipinos and three Americans were guests at the luxury Dos Palmas resort on Palawan island, when they were herded into boats at gun point just before dawn last Sunday.

The Philippines government immediately mobilised a search operation which failed to prevent the kidnappers from travelling 300 miles to their bases in the Sulu archipelago, between the Philippines island of Mindanao and Malaysian Borneo.

Yesterday, military sources confirmed that they had found objects apparently discarded by the hostages and their captors during refuelling stops during their long sea journey, including a speed boat, a camera, a bank card and a luggage label.

"We are still verifying whether these items came from the hostages or from other visitors on the island," the country's military spokesman, Brigadier-General Edilberto Adan, said.

It appears certain now that, as a spokesman claimed on Monday, the Abu Sayyaf have reached their strongholds in the islands of Basilan and Jolo. "It's possible they have reached Basilan," General Adnan admitted."It's very possible they are there now."

If so the task of rescuing the hostages will be all the more difficult. The islands are mountainous and covered with thick jungle, and last year Abu Sayyaf evaded government troops for months with more than 20 Filipino and western hostages whom they eventually exchanged for a ransom as high as 25 million dollars.

The new government of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has promised to make no compromises this time around but, as the booby trapped boat suggests, it has set itself a difficult task: to crush the rebels, while rescuing the hostages unharmed.

In the last year, according to military figures, the army has had 226 battles with the Abu Sayyaf in which 54 soldiers and 357 guerrillas have died. Yesterday, the governnor of Basilan, Wahid Askbar said: "The Philippines must be prepared to sacrifice many lives."

The three American hostages include a pair of Christian evangelical missionaries, but the Philippines is so far refusing offers of American troops. "The Philippine government considers this as internal so that commitment of any ground troops will come from the armed forces of the Philippines," General Adnan said. "The nature of assistance will have to be in the area of information gathering."

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May 31, 2001, AP / The Independent, Hostages reportedly seen in grenade­lined boat, by Adam Brown, Associated Press

The Philippine military blockaded a 60­-mile-­wide corridor of water on Thursday after a booby­trapped boat of hostages was reportedly sighted. A general said that once their captors are found, "the shooting will start."

"We just need one initial positive contact and we will get them," added Brig. Gen. Romeo Dominguez, one of the leaders of the search effort that he called a "rescue and destroy" mission.

DZBB radio quoted local residents as saying the boat was seen late Wednesday about 50 meters (yards) from Keenapusan Island, about an hour by water from Cagayan de Tawi Tawi island, where military searchers earlier found some hostages' belongings.

They said the boat was covered in canvas and ringed with grenades tied with string that could set them off with one yank. The Abu Sayyaf threatened Tuesday to kill all hostages if the military attempts a rescue.

Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan would not comment on the report ­ which later was confirmed by a high­ranking military source ­ or a separate reported sighting off Basilan island. The Abu Sayyaf separatist group has said it split the 20 hostages it seized Sunday from a posh resort into two groups.

"We will chase them to wherever they will go," Adan said, adding that the guerrillas were using a "well­organized" resupply system set up in advance with sympathizers who were providing food and fuel.

Pointing to a map, Adan indicated much of the raiders' escape route hugged the coast of jungle­covered Palawan island before veering southeast to the open waters of the Sulu Sea. He said the military has 5,000 men actively involved in the search and assumes the hostages are still in one group.

He said the blockade by 10 boats, including converted riverboats that were pressed into service, was aimed at blocking access to southern islands where the Abu Sayyaf operates, especially Jolo, where the group has its main base.

Adan said the U.S. government offered to help the Philippines search for the 20 hostages, who include three Americans. Ongoing talks focus on U.S. loans of equipment to hunt down the rebels. Adan said his military lacks aerial and nighttime reconnaissance capability.
"We don't need combat troops here," Adan said. "What is needed here is information."

The U.S. Embassy issued a statement saying that while it remains in close contact with the Philippine government because three Americans are among the hostages, "The U.S. has not intervened in this matter."

"The United States condemns this latest act of terrorism by the Abu Sayyaf group," the statement said. "All of the hostages should be released immediately, safely and unconditionally."

About 24 members of the Abu Sayyaf, which has made millions of dollars in the past by kidnapping foreigners, raided the Dos Palmas report in Palawan province before dawn Sunday. They also abducted five fishermen to help guide and resupply; two escaped and three were later released, Adan said.

Adan said civilians also reported sighting the Abu Sayyaf captors and the hostages on the extreme southern island of Jolo ­ the Abu Sayyaf base ­ but that soldiers had not been able to verify the reports.

The last verified sighting was reported Monday, on Cagayan de Tawi Tawi, when two hostage fishermen escaped by jumping overboard and swimming away when their boat ran out of fuel, Adan said. The fishermen told the military that the guerrillas were running low on food and fuel.

Cagayan de Tawi Tawi lies between the Palawan island group where the hostages were seized and the Jolo island group.

Adan emphasized the complexity of the search, saying the area where the Abu Sayyaf operates is scattered with more than 60 islands. He said the military wants to prevent the rebels from reaching Jolo island, keep the group intact and mount a rescue operation.

The Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for a separate Muslim state in this predominantly Roman Catholic country, seized 10 foreign tourists 13 months ago from a Malaysian resort. Most were released for large ransoms, reportedly paid by Libya.

The money reportedly was used to acquire more advanced equipment, such as high­speed boats and high­tech communications equipment, Adan said.

The government has offered dlrs 2 million in rewards for the capture of Abu Sayyaf leaders and members. Justice Minister Hernando Perez, who met with hostages' relatives Wednesday, said he had urged them not to get involved in direct negotiations with the kidnappers, saying this could only complicate matters.

Adan said Thursday that the military has had 226 clashes with the Abu Sayyaf since last year's kidnapping, killing 54 soldiers and 357 guerrillas. He said military intelligence reports indicate the Abu Sayyaf has 1,104 members on the southern islands of Basilan and Jolo.

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June 1, 2001, AP / The Independent, Philippines military clashes with kidnappers, by Jim Gomez, Associated Press Writer,

Muslim extremists holding 20 hostages clashed with Philippine government forces on a rugged, jungle­covered island Friday, killing two soldiers and wounding at least 14 others, the military said.

Troops were fighting a "running gun battle" with the Abu Sayyaf rebels on Basilan island in the southern Philippines, said military spokesman Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan. He said the rebels were about four miles from the shore and the troops were trying to cut off an escape route.

"The mission is clear: to maintain contact so as to prevent them from escaping. We are not here to disengage. We want to engage," Adan said. He said about 100 rebels were in the area and that he had no information on the condition of the hostages.

Abu Sabaya, a leader of the Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf, phoned a local radio station during the fighting and said two of the hostages had been hit by gunfire. Sounding out of breath, he repeated a threat to kill the captives taken Sunday at an island resort.

Sabaya put one of the 17 Filipino hostages,Teresa Ganzon, on the phone to RMN radio. Her voice breaking, she said the captives were in mortal danger. "We are appealing to the government on behalf of the other hostages, please refrain from military action," the hostage said as gunfire rang out in the background.

"We are being treated well up to now, but these encounters are going to cost us our lives," she said. "There are children with us. It is not easy to be running in these mountains with children in tow. Please." Ganzon said the American hostages were with her group, but she could not confirm if any hostages had been wounded.

Adan said the rebels were in a 6­mile­wide valley between two mountains, in very dense jungle terrain. An Associated Press reporter saw helicopter gunships hammering Mt. Sinangkapan on Basilan island. At least four explosions were heard, and nearby residents said they heard howitzers fire 10 to 15 shells earlier in the day along with sporadic but occasionally intense small arms fire.

Several civilians were injured by an apparent grenade that went awry and exploded well away from the fighting. Abdullah Izzah suffered serious injuries in the back and left arm, as well as facial burns, and was evacuated with soldiers.

"When the explosions started, I sent my children away. I went home to pick up their clothes when the explosion happened while we were inside the house," Izzah said in an interview with Radio Mindanao Network. His wife, Tina, suffered slight leg injuries.

Another resident, Jessica Etok, 39, said she huddled in her wooden hut with her five children during the worst of the fighting. "We heard gunfire and cannon fire continuously," she said.

Adan told a news briefing that two enlisted soldiers were killed and 14 injured in a three­hour fight with the Abu Sayyaf. He said the rebels were using grenade­launchers.

He did not have figures of casualties among the guerrillas, but estimated they were heavy. He said there were no confirmed reports that any hostages had been injured or killed.

A school in the town of Lampinit, in the foothills of the mountain, was quickly turned into a staging center for injured soldiers, who were ferried down from the fighting in jeeps, then transferred to helicopters.

Sabaya said the fighting started when his men allowed a group of hostages to take a bath in a nearby river. He said advancing troops found them and started firing.

"The soldiers thought they were rebels like us," Sabaya said. He added, "Maybe we will stage an execution. Welcome to the party." He said that besides the 20 hostages taken Sunday from the Dos Palmas beach resort in the southwestern Philippines, his group had seized 10 fisherman.

National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said the government is seeking the "unconditional release" of the hostages but that military operations will continue. "The ground commanders have orders to see to the safety of the hostages," he said.

Before the kidnapping, the military had three battalions ­ 1,800 soldiers ­ on Basilan, scouring its jungle­covered mountains to find and fight about 460 Abu Sayyaf members. More troops were being deployed to the island.

Abu Sayyaf gunmen seized the tourists Sunday from the comfortable Dos Palmas resort off Palawan Island, on the northwestern edge of the Sulu Sea. Basilan is at the sea's southeast corner, 350 miles away.

The Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for a separate Muslim state, seized 10 foreign tourists about a year ago from a Malaysian resort, and most were released for millions of dollars in ransom. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal­Arroyo has pledged to crush the rebels.

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June 1, 2001, The Independent, Filipino rebels say hostages killed, 183 words

THE MUSLIM rebel group in the Philippines said two of the hostages they held were killed early today in a clash with troops. The Abu Sayyaf guerrillas kidnapped 17 Filipinos and three Americans on Sunday from a luxury resort and claimed today that they had abducted 10 more people. END

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June 2, 2001, The Independent, Philippines hostages plead for attacks to end, by Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Correspondent,

A group of kidnapped tourists pleaded for their lives yesterday, as the Philippines army fought an intense battle with the Muslim guerrillas who are holding them hostage on the tropical island of Basilan, between the Philippines island of Mindanao and Malaysian Borneo.

The Abu Sayyaf Group, which has 17 Filipino and three American captives, said that two of them had been killed after the attack by Filipino soldiers, and threatened to execute more of them if it continued. The claim could not be confirmed. "The soldiers thought they were rebels like us," one of the Abu Sayaf commanders told a radio station in the Philippines via satellite phone. "Maybe we will stage an execution."

Gunfire could be heard in the background and at one point the voice of a Filipino hostage, Teresa Ganzon, came on the line. "We are appealing to the government on behalf of the other hostages, please refrain from military action," she said. "There are children with us ... I beg of you to please consider, to sit down on the negotiating table and try and find a way to get everybody out safely."

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June 3, 2001, The Independent, 'Survivor' flop deepens ITV crisis; by Jane Robins, Media Editor,

At the crossroads: one high-profile failure after another as viewers desert `arrogant' network

ITV IS FACING the worst ratings crisis in its history largely thanks to the humiliating failure of its reality TV show Survivor.

In theory, the programme could not be hotter. The contestants have delivered on everything from Charlotte's illicit bonking to JJ's overt maggot-eating, and some have proved every bit as nasty as Big Brother's Nick or Popstars' Nigel. In practice, its pitiful number of viewers will contribute to ITV's lowest spring ratings ever - with the summer expected to be just as bad. Figures, soon to be released, will show that in May ITV attracted just 27.3 per cent of the television audience, down from 30.1 per cent last year and 32 per cent the year before.

The crunch-point came on Thursday night, when the full-hour Survivor programme drew just 4.4 million viewers, against a target of 12 million - signalling that instead of "building an audience", the programme was losing one. The disastrous performance has come as a total shock to the programme makers, who had been overjoyed that the contestants had proved to be double-crossing, backstabbing characters who were prepared to eat drowned rats in order to win a million pounds.

But, instead of being compelled by the programme, the viewers have been repelled by it. More than 2 million have deserted the show since it was launched two weeks ago.

ITV executives are now resisting increasing pressure from advertisers to take Survivor out of prime time. "Even a repeat of Heartbeat, or a third re-run of A Touch of Frost would easily get double the audience of Survivor," says a leading advertising executive. The network's performance has been further damaged by the high-profile failure of Crossroads which is likely to be axed when its 12-month contract is up. Audiences for the evening show are trickling along at 1.7 million, a far cry from the 16 million viewers the programme attracted first time around, when the sets shook and characters left to fetch a cup of cocoa and never returned.

The BBC's head of daytime television, Jane Lush, says Crossroads was "an ill-advised commission... And the quality is shoddy in every aspect: the storylines, the writing and the acting."

Some believe that problems with both shows have emerged from a sort of arrogance at the network, with ITV executives assuming in advance they had "killer-shows" on their hands. Ms Lush, for instance, argues that the "kamikaze scheduling" of Crossroads against Neighbours, The Weakest Link and Ready Steady Cook can only be explained if "they thought they had a powerful weapon to place in slots where it really could hurt us".

Similarly, it was assumed by ITV schedulers that Survivor was bound to be a fantastic hit. When it was not, broadcasters were perplexed. "You have to wonder whether the Survivor audience was irritated by ITV's assumption that `they' at ITV knew best what `you' at home were really going to like," says a BBC executive. Its confidence in Survivor was inspired by the tremendous success of the programme in America where it was the most watched show in years and drew a 51 million audience to the final episode.

Dozens of theories are emerging over why the phenomenon has not been repeated here. One is that Survivor is simply too horrible. The conditions are ghastly, and the contestants are required to be loathsome to each other. Another argues that the show suits an American audience better by being filled with competent, glamorous people, rather than the (more British) mixed-bag, rather hopeless bunch that occupies the Big Brother house.

Even ITV's mighty drama department, which has consistently trounced the BBC, is experiencing some wobbles. When, last week, ITV put up its two biggest stars, John Thaw and Sarah Lancashire in a new series, The Glass, it was roundly beaten by BBC1's thriller Messiah, a grisly murder story with Ken Stott as the investigating detective.

The BBC's head of drama, Jane Tranter, argues that with Messiah the audience got "a sniff" early on that it was a compelling, well- told story - and was also astute in detecting that The Glass, by contrast, was largely being carried by its two stars.

Others think the problem lies in the fact that you can only rely on Thaw so many times. "We've had John Thaw the policeman, John Thaw, the lawyer, John Thaw the priest, John Thaw the old codger who talks about the war, and now John Thaw the businessman," says an executive at Sky. "There is only so much that you can take."

Nobody is denying that ITV still produces giant hits from time to time - regularly from the drama department, and occasionally with entertainment shows such as Popstars and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? But, overall its audience share is in relentless decline from 40 per cent less than a decade ago, to around 28 per cent now - and it is losing viewers at a faster rate than BBC1.

ITV's May figure has only ever been lower once, and that was last August, in the height of summer when much of the audience was on holiday. To make matters worse, the number of vital 16-34 year olds watching ITV has fallen 8 per cent in the past year.

Its audience revenues have, according to rival broadcasters, fallen off by a whopping 15 per cent this year and income is already pounds 175m down. That, it is widely believed, must soon filter through to tighter programme budgets.

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June 3, 2001, The Independent, Philippino hostages caught in gun battle,

FILIPINO TROOPS waged a fierce street battle in Lamitan yesterday with Muslim extremists holed up in a hospital with dozens of hostages.

Officials said 40 to 60 rebels were holding patients, doctors, nurses and two priests, along with at least some of the 20 hostages they seized at the Dos Palmas beach resort in the south-western Philippines six days ago.

Authorities said four of the 17 Filipino hostages from the resort, including an eight-year-old boy, fled the hospital under fire. At least one injured hostage was evacuated. The whereabouts of at least two of the three Americans snatched from the resort were unclear.

General Edilberto Adan said the rebels, who call themselves the Abu Sayyaf, entered the town early Saturday and seized the hospital, probably to treat guerrillas wounded in jungle fighting that erupted nearby after troops encountered rebels and some hostages on Friday.

The Abu Sayyaf says it is fighting for an independent Islamic state in the southern Philippines, a mostly Catholic country, but the military regards it as a bandit gang.

Resort hostage Teresa Ganzon spoke on RMN radio periodically Saturday, pleading for the government to halt its offensive. "We are with the suicide squad of the Abu Sayyaf. There are many innocent lives who have nothing to do with the situation and they are at risk," Ms Ganzon said.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said the military would not stop until all the hostages were released. "We will finish off all the bandits if they don't surrender at the earliest possible time," she said in a radio address. "To the Abu Sayyaf: You have nowhere else to run and it would be best for you to release those whom you've kidnapped." (AP)

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June 11, 2001, The Independent, Soldiers Find Mutilated Bodies of Filipino Hostages, by Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Correspondent,
686 words

DURING A third day of intense fighting yesterday, soldiers in the southern Philippines discovered the mutilated bodies of two hostages murdered by the Islamic Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG).

The two Filipino men were identified as Sonny Dacquero and Armando Bayona, employees at the luxury beach resort where 20 hostages - including three Americans - were seized by the ASG eight days ago.

Twelve others, including soldiers, guerrillas and civilians, were reported to have been killed during a 24-hour street battle in a small town on the jungle island of Basilan, where the guerrillas have one of their bases.

It began on Saturday, when 60 of the ASG guerrillas found themselves in an apparently hopeless position, after taking over a hospital and church in the town of Lamitan. They were swiftly surrounded, and all day Philippines soldiers and helicopter gunships besieged the buildings with rifle fire and rockets.

But early yesterday morning 100 more guerrillas emerged from the jungle and gave covering fire, allowing them to escape from the town dragging hostages with them, including patients, nurses and a doctor.

The military spokesman, Brigadier-General Edilberto Adan, said in Manila: "They covered their escape with a heavy volume of fire and then used children and other hostages as human shields. Our troops withheld their fire [when] they saw rebels moving, because some of the hostages might be hit."

One of the ASG commanders, Khaddafy Janjalani, was reported to have died over the weekend, but this could not be confirmed. Nine of the original 20 hostages escaped over the weekend, and several of them appealed for the military to break off its all-out assault, to safeguard those who remained in captivity.

"I'm appealing to the government to look for another solution to the problem," Teresa Ganzon, whose husband is still held, said. "The hostages will have a hard time because they know nothing about the jungle."

Aurora Samson, a 60-year-old teacher, who was caught in the hospital while picking up a prescription, said: "We lived from explosion to explosion, fearing the next one would kill us all. Because of the volume of gunfire, I thought there would be no tomorrow."

The three Americans, including a missionary couple, remain captives and the discovery of the two dead hostages will increase fears for their safety. In the past, ASG has occasionally killed hostages, but its bloodthirsty threats have always outnumbered its actual executions.

Last year ASG made a fortune in ransom money, after kidnapping 21 hostages - including 10 foreign tourists - from a Malaysian holiday resort. But this time, the government of the new President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, has promised neither to engage in any negotiation with the guerrillas nor to pay any ransom.

Mrs Macapagal Arroyo is reported to be furious with her military commanders, who have repeatedly allowed the guerrillas and their captives to slip through their fingers. Despite an air and sea search, they were able to sail 300 miles in motorboats from Palawan Island, where the kidnapping took place.

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June 11, 2001, The Independent, Rebel threat to behead hostages, 182 words
ABU SAYYAF guerrillas holding US and Filipino hostages threatened to behead three American captives "within 72 hours" yesterday if the Philippines government rejected their demand for a Malaysian negotiator to end the crisis. The government reiterated its threat of military action. END [? 41 words. Highbeam search results indicated 182 words.]

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June 11, 2001, The Independent, Rebel leader threatens to kill American in Philippines,

A Muslim extremist leader told a local radio station he will kill an American hostage on Monday unless the Philippine government appoints two Malaysians to negotiate the release of the rebels' captives.

As the deadline neared, members of his Abu Sayyaf group attacked a plantation in central Basilan, taking an unknown number of children and a security guard hostage, said Tahira Ishmail, mayor–elect of Lantawan town on the southern island of Basilan.

Officials said the group's three American hostages may have been dragged along with the attackers.

"I hope they don't touch the children," said Ishmail, who reported the incident occurred near her town and involved both Muslim and Christian children. "They're innocent. They don't know what's going on."

Col. Hermogenes Esperon, army brigadier commander on Basilan island, said some children were taken in the raid on the 500–hectare (1,200–acre) coconut and coffee plantation along with one of the plantation's owners and a security guard. They also burned a chapel and a hut, he said.

Esperon said troops were on their way to the area to fight the guerrillas.

Abu Sabaya, a leader of the Abu Sayyaf group, had threatened on last Thursday to kill a Californian and a Kansas couple with a vague deadline, then reiterated it in his first call since then to a local radio station Monday morning.

The threat was apparently to kill only one hostage, although Sabaya previously threatened to kill more than one of the three Americans he holds in addition to 10 Filipinos on the southern Island of Basilan.

Asked whether he will kill an American or a Filipino, he said: "I will make sure it will be a white."

In his call to Radio Mindanao Network, Sabaya reiterated his call for the government to bring in the Malaysians, who helped negotiate the release last year of another batch of Abu Sayyaf hostages, reportedly for millions of dollars in ransom.

"If the Malaysians are allowed to enter, we will release some of the hostages as a good gesture," Sabaya told RMN. "The time is running out. No deal. Take it or leave it. Each hour is important.

"It's (the government's) responsibility if these white people lose their heads," Sabaya said. He usually makes such announcements through the southern radio station.

Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan called for more time to consider the guerrilla request and reiterated the government's no–ransom policy.

"That's a short time for the government to look into that and to contact the Malaysian government," Adan said. "The (Abu Sayyaf) should give our civilian negotiators time to study this and take the necessary actions."

He said, however, that Sabaya may be bluffing.

"We can't just believe everything he says. This could be another one of his ploys," Adan said.

The Abu Sayyaf has often threatened to kill foreign hostages in the past without doing so.

Adan also issued a stern warning to Sabaya against harming the hostages.

"There will be implications not only for him but also his family and his clan," Adan said.

Ishmail said 30 to 50 families fled a nearby village over the weekend after they spotted Abu Sayyaf guerrillas nearby with several hostages, including Californian Guillermo Sobero and Kansas missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham.

She said the Abu Sayyaf set up lookouts and checkpoints in the area as thousands of troops scoured the small southern island for signs of the rebel group.

The Abu Sayyaf says it is fighting to carve out an independent Islamic state from the southern Philippines, but the government says the group is engaged in mere banditry. Muslims are a minority in mostly Roman Catholic Philippines.

Basilan, one of the southern islands that the Abu Sayyaf uses as a base, is predominantly Muslim with a large Christian minority.
Millions of dollars in ransoms were reportedly brokered by Libya to end last year's hostage crisis. The military says the money allowed the rebels to buy arms and speedboats used in the May 27 abduction of tourists, including the Americans, from a beach resort across the Sulu Sea.

Presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao has said a foreign mediator "might cause some misunderstanding," and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo reiterated her no–ransom policy Sunday.

The guerrillas are believed to have split their 13 hostages into at least two groups to avoid detection in thick jungles.

The government is preparing for peace talks later this month with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a much larger but less radical Muslim separatist group in the southern Philippines. A second round of peace talks started Sunday with the New People's Army, a communist rebel group fighting a Marxist rebellion throughout the Philippines.

However, Arroyo ordered all–out war with the Abu Sayyaf. She says these rebels are driven by the pursuit of money, particularly through kidnapping for ransom.

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June 12, 2001, The Independent, Kidnapped Americans get last-ditch reprieve, by Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Correspondent,

IN A SIGN of its increasing desperation, the government of the Philippines made its first compromise with the Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group yesterday in a last-ditch effort to save the lives of three kidnapped Americans.

Minutes before the point at which the guerrillas had said they would behead a hostage, Manila announced it would accept the role of a Malaysian mediator whom the Abu Sayyaf had demanded to meet. "We want to show our sincerity," said Rigoberto Tiglao, spokesman for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. "We appeal to them not to harm the hostages." The negotiator in question is Sairin Karno, a former Malaysian politician, who brokered the release of a group of Westerners last year.

The Abu Sayyaf commander, Abu Sabaya, responded by announcing on Philippines radio: "If what they are saying is true, that they will contact the Malaysian government and Sairin will come in and they will cease military operations here, then I can assure them that we will postpone the beheading. But if the government continues to invade, it's up to them."

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June 13, 2001, The Independent, Muslim Filipino guerrillas claim to have killed American hostage, by Kathy Marks,

Abu Sayyaf guerrillas claimed on radio yesterday to have beheaded an American hostage, one of a group they seized more than a fortnight ago.

The rebels are apparently infuriated by the Philippines government's failure to take them seriously. The reported murder of Guillermo Sobero, 39, a tourist from Corona, California, provoked widespread outrage. The American embassy in Manila called it a "cowardly act" and condemned it in the strongest possible terms. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who appears to have misjudged the Muslim separatist rebels, went on television to say that the killing "strengthens our resolve to decimate once and for all this cold-blooded bandit group".

Mr Sobero was one of three Americans and 17 Filipinos abducted by the guerrillas. A leader of the group, Abu Sabaya, told a local radio station yesterday Mr Sobero had been beheaded. "Look for his head in Tuburan," he said, referring to a town on the southern island of Basilan, a rebel stronghold. There has as yet been no confirmation of the claim, which Mr Sabaya described as "an Independence Day present" for the government. Yesterday was the 103rd anniversary of the Philippines' declaration of independence from Spain. Mr Sabaya added: "The military better hurry up in the rescue because they might not find anyone alive."

Nine of the Filipino hostages taken at the same time as Mr Sobero have either escaped or been rescued, while two have been found dead, apparently executed by the rebels.

Mrs Arroyo's national security adviser, Roilo Golez, told the radio station DZMM that the news of Mr Sobero's beheading was still "subject to confirmation". But the armed forces Chief of Staff, Diomedio Villanueva, said a military intelligence task force had reported that the likelihood that Mr Sobero had been killed was "very, very high". Philippine troops are looking for his body in the Tuburan area.

An official at the US State Department in Washington said a headless body had been found but not yet identified. Late yesterday, a Manila government source said two headless bodies had been found.

If Mr Sobero has been killed, the chances of a negotiated settlement to the Philippines' latest hostage crisis would be scuppered. Yusuf Hamdan, a Malaysian businessman, said that if the claim was true, he and Sairin Karno, a Malaysian politician, would not accept the rebels' demands to mediate. Mr Hamdan, who helped to negotiate the release of hostages held by the same rebels last year, said: "This is very inhuman, very un-Islamic."

Mr Sabaya said there would be no further negotiations. "From now on, we will only give you a call when we behead another hostage," he said. He also claimed to have film of the decapitation. It would be sent to the authorities once roadblocks in Basilan had been lifted.

Mrs Arroyo and Vice-President Teofisto Guingona cut short appearances at separate Independence Day ceremonies when they received news of the reported killing. Mrs Arroyo called an emergency cabinet meeting.

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June 14, 2001, The Independent, American may have been beheaded, 180 words,

Children watching soldiers patrol in Lantawan in the southern Philippines province of Basilan, as the search continues for an American hostage that Muslim rebels claim to have beheaded. Three bodies have been found on Abu Sayyaf guerrilla territory Aaron Favila/ AP END

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June 16, 2001, The Independent, Two die, dozens hurt in blast, 190 words

TWO PEOPLE were killed and 31 wounded yesterday when an unidentified attacker tossed a grenade outside a supermarket in Iligan city in the southern Philippines. The blast occurred while thousands of troops were pursuing rebels holding American and Filipino hostages for three weeks on Basilan island, also in the troubled south. END
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June 19, 2001, The Independent, Kidnappers in plea over hostages, 184 words

MUSLIM EXTREMISTS holding a group of hostages in the southern Philippines, one of whom they claim to have executed, offered to negotiate their captives' release if the army called off its pursuit. A military spokesman in Basilan, where 5,000 troops have been deployed, rejected the offer. END
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June 23, 2001, The Independent, ‘Curb money-launderers' warning, 201 words

RUSSIA, THE Philippines and the tiny Pacific isle of Nauru were warned yesterday to take action against money-launderers or "face countermeasures". The threat came from the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which is backed by most industrial nations. Their blacklist also includes Burma, Egypt, Indonesia, Israel, Lebanon, Nigeria, St Kitts, Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines. END

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June 25, 2001, The Independent, Philippines volcano forces exodus, by Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Correspondent, 288 words

THOUSANDS OF people fled their homes in the northern Philippines island of Luzon yesterday when lava, rocks and superheated ash rained from the Mayon volcano.

There were no reports of deaths due directly to the erupting volcano, but one woman died of a heart attack and another man was killed in a traffic accident as he tried to flee. In another incident, evacuees were injured when a truck crashed into a canal.

Almost 8,000 people had been displaced by yesterday evening, and another 60,000 could be forced to follow.

Philippines television showed pictures of glowing rivers of lava oozing down the 2,467-metre (8,141ft) mountain. But the greatest danger came from huge rocks being thrown out of the volcano and by pyroclastic flows - rivers of superheated ash and gas - which can travel at 60 miles an hour, incinerating everything in their path.

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June 28, 2001, The Independent, Malaysia Helpless to Fight off Pirate Raids, by Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Correspondent, 700+ words

MARITIME OFFICIALS were given a graphic illustration of the threat facing their industry when hijackers seized a cargo ship and kidnapped its captain during a conference on the dangers of modern day piracy.

A group of pirates demanded the equivalent of pounds 66,500 yesterday for Simon Perera, the skipper of the Indonesia-registered Tirta Niaga, which was hijacked on Monday off the coast of Malaysia. The crime took place as delegates from 20 countries were arriving in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, for the anti-piracy conference.

According to Malaysian coastguards, the pirates released Captain Perera's crew of 20 yesterday along with his ship, and its 2,850- ton cargo of palm oil. The captain himself was being held in the northern part of Indonesia's Sumatra island, 350 miles from Kuala Lumpur, across the perilous Straits of Malacca.

The conference, organised by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), drew to a close yesterday with the simulated rescue of a pirated ship by Malaysian police, to the accompaniment of a James Bond soundtrack. But the hijacking of the Tirta Niaga illustrates the growing helplessness of regional law enforcers to fight what looks increasingly like a piracy epidemic.

A record 469 piracy incidents were recorded by the IMB last year, an increase of 57 per cent on the previous year. During the same period the number of sailors killed by pirates rose from three to 72. Over half of the attacks occurred in South-east Asia, where a prolonged economic crisis - combined with political troubles and weak law enforcement - has created ideal conditions for pirates.

Some 14 of the incidents last year occurred in the Straits of Malacca, a sea lane that links the oilfields of the Middle East and the fuel- hungry economies of Japan, South Korea and China. This year there have been 10 attacks within the Straits already, and delegates at the conference warned that, unless governments in the region improved their co-ordination, the situation would continue to deteriorate.
"The co-operation among these countries is not necessarily in the most ideal state," said Hiroshi Terashima, of Japan's Nippon Foundation.

At the heart of the problem are Indonesia's 13,000 islands, which supply pirates with their personnel, hideouts and much of their prey. But weak political leadership, corruption and collusion between criminal syndicates and military officers make it a pirate's paradise.

More than a quarter of worldwide piracy attacks occurred in Indonesian waters last year, and an eighth of them in Malaysian waters. In parts of the region, piracy has a political dimension, particularly in the southern Philippines, where the Muslim guerrilla group Abu Sayyaf has made millions of pounds from ransoming kidnapped tourists. Attacks typically take place at night and are launched from small boats with outboard motors, which are silenced as they approach an oil tanker or cargo ship. The pirates climb aboard with grappling hooks and threaten the crew with knives and guns. If they are not murdered, crew members are often set adrift in small boats.

The hijacked vessels are then piloted to safety, often to ports in southern China, where corrupt local officials will turn a blind eye for a price. Repainted, renamed and re-registered, they are surprisingly difficult to track down.

The IMB maintains a 24-hour anti-piracy operation in Malaysia. A number of private security companies offer to organise teams of ex- commandos and mercenaries to board and recapture pirated vessels.

The notorious Viroj Buasuwan, 50, a Thai pirate known as "Roj of the One Hundred Corpses" because of his liking for forcing hijacked crews to jump overboard, was arrested on Saturday after the crew of a trawler swam to safety and reported him to the Thai police.


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June 28, 2001, The Independent, Malaysia Fails to Wipe out the Pirate Paradise, by Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Correspondent, 700+ words

[same text as above]
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July 8, 2001, The Independent, Deadly storm strikes, 172 words

Tropical storm Utor killed three people as it hit China's south- east province of Guangdong, wiping out 4,700 homes and causing pounds 1.8bn in damage. As a typhoon, it had killed 112 people in the Philippines and left 69 missing. END
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July 10, 2001, The Independent, Filipino hostage leader is captured, by Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Correspondent,
[Or: Filipino Hostage Group Leader Captured in Raid]

Filipino troops yesterday seized one of the senior commanders of Abu Sayyaf, the Islamic guerrilla group that has kidnapped and ransomed dozens of people in the southern Philippines. Najmi Sabdula, whose alias is Commander Global, was captured in the town of General Santos on the southern island of Mindanao, 560 miles from their lair on the remote Jolo island.

Philippines officers said he was responsible for the Abu Sayyaf raid five weeks ago on a luxury island resort and the kidnap of 20 tourists, including three Americans. Since then the guerrillas have humiliated the Philippines armed forces, slipping through the jungle with their hostages with thousands of soldiers and special forces in hot pursuit.

Lieutenant-General Jaime de los Santos said: "The capture of Commander Global is a great setback for the ASG [Abu Sayyaf Group]. I think, with this capture, we expect to get further information on their operations."

Brigadier-General Edilberto Adan, a military spokesman, paraded Global on a televised news conference in Manila, saying: "The number one effect is psychological. Now they are realising that wherever they go, they can be captured. They might be able to stage a raid, but they will be pursued and they cannot hide."

The captured guerrilla stood with his hands cuffed and his shoulders bowed, and shook his head in answer to reporters' questions. Three other members of the ASG – identified as Saltima Alih, Alex Sabdali and Jamar – were also captured, after a tip-off that they were in a house close to the airport of General Santos.

Rigoberto Tiglao, a spokesman for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, said: "We see it as another indication that the Abu Sayyaf network is being gradually, but surely dismantled. We see that we're turning the corner now in the fight against the Abu Sayyaf."

But the effect on the ASG remains to be seen. Yesterday, army spokesmen were describing their captive as a mastermind. "He's the think-tank of the group," Colonel Danilo Servando said. "He hatches the plan and other groups carry out the mission."

In reality, Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for an independent Muslim state in the southern Philippines, is a loose organisation of bandit groups led by individual commanders of equal rank. Several commanders have childish nicknames: there is a Commander Robot and a Commander Boy, as well as a Commander Global, who was nicknamed, like a classroom swot, because of his impressive learning and international perspective. Global and Robot organised the ASG's first kidnap of foreign hostages, from a Malaysian resort island in spring last year. As much as $25m (£18m) in ransom was paid for the release of the mixed group of Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Malaysian and South African hostages.

Negotiators and intermediaries who met Global describe him as quietly spoken and intelligent, with a distinctive bullet scar on his right cheek. "He's very silent, a good listener, because he listens to what you say and then he'll refute you," one negotiator said. "It's true that he's a thinker – he thinks globally."

Philippines television said the press conference had been delayed after soldiers and police squabbled over the five million pesos (£65,000) offered for Global's capture.

Thousands of wanted posters, with photos of him and five other Abu Sayyaf commanders, have been put up across Mindanao and dropped by plane into the jungle.

Abu Sayyaf commanders are still holding an American missionary couple, who were seized from the resort in May. A third American hostage, Guillermo Sobero, is reported to have been beheaded by the rebels, although there has been no sign of his body.
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July 11, 2001, The Independent, Estrada refuses to enter a plea on corruption charges, by Carmina Reyes, in Manila,

The deposed president of the Philippines, Joseph Estrada, refused to enter a plea to a charge of plundering the economy yesterday – an offence punishable by death – after a last-ditch bid to stop the court hearings failed. "Upon the advice of my lawyers, I am not entering a plea," Mr Estrada told the court.

He is the first former Philippine head of state to be prosecuted for allegedly enriching himself in office. The disgraced one-time movie actor is charged with amassing more than four billion pesos (£53m) in ill-gained wealth during his 31 months in office, which ended with his overthrow in a military-backed "people power" revolt in January.

The anti-graft court, which is hearing the case and four other criminal charges against Mr Estrada, automatically entered a not-guilty plea for him.

More than 2,000 troops, including commando teams armed with assault rifles, guarded the courthouse and bomb-sniffing dogs prowled corridors as Mr Estrada stood in front of a panel of three judges inside a jam-packed courtroom.

He was flanked by his son, the former town mayor Jose "Jinggoy" Mr Estrada, and his former presidential aide Edward Serapio, who were among his seven co-accused in the plunder case. The other defendants are at large, some now living in America.

Just hours before his court appearance, Mr Estrada's lawyers had filed a motion with the Supreme Court to try to stop the hearing on the basis that the law of plunder was unconstitutional.

The attempt was futile. No restraining order came down from the country's highest court and the hearings proceeded.

A Supreme Court spokesman said the court was studying Mr Estrada's petition. Any court ruling in future declaring the plunder statute as unconstitutional would render the case against Mr Estrada "moot and academic," he said.

Among the charges against Mr Estrada, state prosecutors accused him of taking 545 million pesos (£7.2m) in bribes from illegal gambling syndicates, pocketing excise taxes intended for tobacco farmers and receiving hefty commissions from stock market deals involving state firms. Mr Estrada denies any wrongdoing.

He is also accused of using the alias "Jose Velarde" for hidden bank accounts and the pseudonym "Asiong Salonga" to hide bribe money.

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July 15, 2001, The Independent, Muslim rebels held, 160 words
Authorities in the Philippines said they had arrested 71 suspected members and supporters of Muslim rebels holding American and Filipino hostages in the south. END
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July 27, 2001, The Independent, Volcano forces thousands to flee, 172 words
A VOLCANO in the Philippines erupted with little warning yesterday, forcing more than 40,000 people to flee their homes. Mayon Volcano, 200 miles southeast of Manila, blasted out gases at 900C (1,600F) and flaming rocks END
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July 30, 2001, The Independent, Book revealing US role in Indonesian killings is suppressed, by Andrew Buncombe in Washington,

The publication of a history book that reveals American involvement in the deaths of more than 100,000 communists in Indonesia has been halted by the Bush administration.

The book ­ produced by the State Department ­ records US diplomatic and intelligence activities in Indonesia during 1965-66. It shows how during a bloody crackdown against communists, the US embassy in Jakarta provided security forces with a list of top leaders of the PKI ­ the Communist Party opposition at the time.

It also suggests that the US information contributed to the killing of more than 100,000 PKI members. In the chaotic struggle ­ portrayed in the film The Year of Living Dangerously ­ General Suharto became the country's dictator, replacing president Sukarno. The CIA advised that the book be withdrawn to avoid damaging relations at a time of political turmoil in Indonesia.

A copy of the book was obtained by the National Security Archive, a non-profit research institute in Washington that campaigns for access to official documents that have been declassified, after it was accidentally shipped to government bookstores.

According to the archive, the book says that in December 1965, Marshall Green, the US Ambassador, "endorsed a 50 million rupiah (£3,500) covert payment to the Kap-Gestapu movement leading the repression". Other documents contained within the book refer to the death of communist opposition members.

"We frankly do not know whether the real figure [of communists who have been killed] is closer to 100,000 or 1,000,000 but believe it wiser to err on the side of the lower estimates, especially when questioned by the press," says one of the documents sent to Washington.
Another says: "The chances of detection ... of our support in this instance are as minimal as any black bag operation can be."

The book is just the latest in a 350-volume series of books on foreign relations that have been published by the State Department since 1861. The department says the books are designed to present "the official documentary historical record of major US foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity". Other volumes cover the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, Arab-Israeli conflicts in the mid-1960s and Vietnam in 1966.

A State Department official told The New York Times newspaper that earlier this year, they "began the process of arranging" release of the book. But he added that the government printing office mistakenly began distributing copies of the book before an "internal process" of review had been completed by the State Department. No one from the National Security Archive was available for comment yesterday.

Last week, Sukarno's daughter, Megawati Sukarnoputri, replaced Abdurrahman Wahid as Indonesia's president. Mr Wahid, 60, who has had two strokes and is nearly blind, arrived in the United States on Friday for a medical check-up.

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August 4, 2001, The Independent, Extremists behead four in Philippines, by Dirk Beveridge, in Manila

Muslim extremists raided a southern Philippines village, seizing 36 Filipino hostages then beheading at least four, the military and police said yesterday. It is their biggest attack since taking a group of captives, including three Americans, from a beach resort in May.

Military leaders said the Abu Sayyaf militants struck a village outside Lamitan town on Basilan island on Thursday night. Soldiers and police found four bodies early yesterday.

"All were dead – beheaded," said the military's deputy chief of staff, Lieutenant-General Jose Calimlim. The Basilan police chief, Senior Superintendent Akmadul Pangambayan, had said earlier that five bodies had been discovered.

There is also confusion about how many hostages were taken. The Lamitan police chief, Inspector Omar Adjid Dalawis, said it was 36; other sources put the number at 24, with at least 16 still in the hands of the militants yesterday afternoon.

The Abu Sayyaf militants, thought to number 1,100, are fighting for an independent Muslim state in the southern Philippines. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has vowed to crush Abu Sayyaf and the latest attack came after a man told Radio Mindanao Network that the group would kill Christians in retaliation for the military's attempts to wipe it out.

Abu Sayyaf is still holding a missionary couple, Martin and Gracia Burnham, captured during an attack on a southwestern beach resort in May. The militants claims to have beheaded a third American, Guillermo Sobero, but his body has not been found. (AP)
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August 19, 2001, The Independent, Bars Blocked Escape of 75 Dead in Manila Hotel Fire ; Trapped: Delegates to US Evangelical Group's Event Are Caught in Their Rooms, by Andrew Buncombe, 700+ words

Fire investigators in the Philippines began seeking the cause of a blaze which tore through a Manila hotel yesterday killing more than 75 people, many of whom were attending a conference organised by a US evangelical group.

Initial reports suggested that security bars fixed over the windows may have prevented many of the victims from escaping, which, coupled with the inadequate escape routes, added to the death toll. All of the dead are believed to be Filipino.

The fire broke out early yesterday at the Manor Hotel in Quezon City, a suburb of the capital, Manila. Many of the dead were found in the hotel's bathrooms, apparently trying to escape from the smoke. Most of them are believed to have died from smoke inhalation.

"Without a doubt there would have been more people rescued if there had been no iron grilles on the windows," said Feliciano Belmonte, the mayor of Quezon City. "There were people hanging out on the windows crying out to be rescued."

Firefighters rescued 18 people by cutting through the bars over the windows. Two people escaped by jumping from the six-storey building, one of them landing on a concrete canopy.

Officials said the hotel had 236 registered guests, 172 of whom were taking part in a Christian conference organised by Don Clowers Ministries, an American evangelical group based in Texas which was sponsoring the three-day "Destiny Conference".

Mr Clowers, his wife and a small team from Texas were not staying at the hotel. "None of them was hurt. We had four staff there and they are fine," said Brett Boyd, one of the group's pastors based in Texas.

"We are saddened by what has happened there. Mrs Clowers rang to say that they were all right and that they were now tending to the needs of the people involved."

Despite the fire, the conference went ahead, with around 8,000 people singing and praying for victims. Mr Clowers asked for donations for the victims and said that he would cover some expenses related to the fire, though he did not give details.

Survivors told how they had fought to escape from what has become the Philippines' deadliest hotel fire. Eugene Schwebler, 60, from Wisconsin, one of a handful of Clowers followers from the US, said he tried to flee from his fourth-floor room but heat forced him back. In the end he had to pull the air-conditioning unit from the wall of his room to reach the fire escape.

"I don't know how many came out," he said. "The lights went out and we heard people screaming."

Eleanor Schofield, from the Philippines, discovered the bodies of her boyfriend and 17-year-old daughter after earlier finding her seven-year- old son dead at a hospital. They had been staying at the hotel while she was out of town and she had rushed back after hearing of the fire.

"Lord, Lord, they did not leave anyone for me," she cried. "I was hoping to see them alive, but they are all dead."

As the bodies of the dead were recovered, officials lined them up in rows at a nearby basketball court. There they were covered in straw mats and then put into body bags once officials had taken their fingerprints. Many were wearing badges for the evangelical conference.

Mr Schwebler thought the fire had started in a third-floor restaurant, which seemed to have suffered the worst damage. A security guard in an adjacent building said he saw smoke coming from an exhaust fan shortly before 4am.

Danilo Cabrera, of the Bureau of Fire Protection, said that many of the hotel's exits were blocked, locked, or led to dead ends, and there appeared to be no fire alarms or emergency lights. One report said that a security guard tried to wake guests by firing his pistol but that the noise was drowned out by the air-conditioning units in the rooms.

The Philippines' president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, visited survivors in at least one hospital. "She told me that I can be assured of assistance from the government, but she did not specify what," said Purita Legazpi, whose cousin died in the fire.

The incident was the deadliest in the Philippines since a 1996 fire in a disco in which 160 people were killed.


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August 19, 2001, The Independent, Manila hotel fire victims trapped by window bars, by Andrew Buncombe,

Blaze mystery - at least 75 dead as flames ravage venue for US evangelical group's conference

Fire investigators in the Philippines are seeking the cause of a blaze which tore through a Manila hotel killing more than 75 people, many of whom were attending a conference organised by a US evangelical group.

Initial reports suggested that security bars fixed over the windows may have prevented many of the victims from escaping, which, coupled with the inadequate escape routes, added to the death toll. All of the dead are believed to be Filipino.

The fire broke out early yesterday at the Manor Hotel in Quezon City, a suburb of the capital, Manila. Many of the dead were found in the hotel's bathrooms, apparently trying to escape from the smoke. Most of them are believed to have died from smoke inhalation.

"Without a doubt there would have been more people rescued if there had been no iron grilles on the windows," said Feliciano Belmonte, the mayor of Quezon City. "There were people hanging out on the windows crying out to be rescued."

Firefighters rescued 18 people by cutting through the bars over the windows. Two people escaped by jumping from the six-storey building, one of them landing on a concrete canopy.

Officials said the hotel had 236 registered guests, 172 of whom were taking part in a Christian conference organised by Don Clowers Ministries, an American evangelical group based in Texas which was sponsoring the three-day "Destiny Conference".

Mr Clowers, his wife and a small team from Texas were not staying at the hotel. "None of them was hurt. We had four staff there and they are fine," said Brett Boyd, one of the group's pastors based in Texas.

"We are saddened by what has happened there. Mrs Clowers rang to say that they were all right and that they were now tending to the needs of the people involved."

Despite the fire, the conference went ahead, with around 8,000 people singing and praying for victims. Mr Clowers asked for donations for the victims and said that he would cover some expenses related to the fire, though he did not give details.

Survivors told how they had fought to escape from what has become the Philippines' deadliest hotel fire.Eugene Schwebler, 60, from Wisconsin, one of a handful of Clowers followers from the US, said he tried to flee from his fourth-floor room but heat forced him back. In the end he had to pull the air-conditioning unit from the wall of his room to reach the fire escape.

"I don't know how many came out," he said. "The lights went out and we heard people screaming."

Eleanor Schofield, from the Philippines, discovered the bodies of her boyfriend and 17-year-old daughter after earlier finding her seven-year-old son dead at a hospital. They had been staying at the hotel while she was out of town and she had rushed back after hearing of the fire.

"Lord, Lord, they did not leave anyone for me," she cried. "I was hoping to see them alive, but they are all dead."

As the bodies of the dead were recovered, officials lined them up in rows at a nearby basketball court. There they were covered in straw mats and then put into body bags once officials had taken their fingerprints. Many were wearing badges for the evangelical conference.

Mr Schwebler thought the fire had started in a third-floor restaurant, which seemed to have suffered the worst damage. A security guard in an adjacent building said he saw smoke coming from an exhaust fan shortly before 4am.

Danilo Cabrera, of the Bureau of Fire Protection, said that many of the hotel's exits were blocked, locked, or led to dead ends, and there appeared to be no fire alarms or emergency lights. One report said that a security guard tried to wake guests by firing his pistol but that the noise was drowned out by the air-conditioning units in the rooms.

The Philippines' president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, visited survivors in at least one hospital. "She told me that I can be assured of assistance from the government, but she did not specify what," said Purita Legazpi, whose cousin died in the fire.

The incident was the deadliest in the Philippines since a 1996 fire in a disco in which 160 people were killed.

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August 25, 2001, The Independent, Philippines army 'took terror bribe', by Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Correspondent

A Roman Catholic priest accused Philippines army officers of accepting bribes from Islamic terrorists to allow them to escape from a besieged town with hostages.

Father Cirilo Nacorda told congressional investigators visiting the remote island of Basilan that soldiers allowed members of the Abu Sayyaf group to escape from an apparently impossible position in the town of Lamitan in June. The guerrillas were holed up in a church and hospital surrounded by 1,000 troops with armoured cars and helicopter gunships.

In what is a further humiliation for the government, Father Nacorda described how Abu Sayyaf leaders and army officers negotiated the bribes over their mobile phones and agreed that the terrorists would escape into the jungle with their Filipino and American hostages.
The senior officer who led the siege of Lamitan, Brigadier-General Romeo Dominguez, denied the allegations in a radio interview.

However, they ring true with many Filipinos who are disgusted with the apparent incompetence and corruption of their own armed forces.
Three months have passed since the Abu Sayyaf snatched 20 tourists, including three Americans, from the holiday island of Palawan.

Last year, they received up to £14m in ransom for a group of Western hostages, snatched from another luxury resort and this time the Philippines' new President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, insisted on no compromise. But her determination to snuff out the guerrillas has been foiled at every step by her own military forces.

Not only did the guerrillas slip through a naval blockade to reach their base on Basilan, they seized fresh hostages from villages around the island. The kidnappers claim to have beheaded one of the American hostages, Guillermo Corona, but no remains have been found.
Prospero Pichay, the chairman of the congressional defence committee, promised a full inquiry if the investigators found enough evidence. The hearings continue today.

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August 29, 2001, Associated Press / The Independent, Missionary shot dead in Philippines,

An Irish missionary was shot dead on Tuesday by four gunmen who had tried to abduct him in a remote town in the southern Philippines, police said.

The Reverend Rufus Halley, a member of the Columban order, had been riding his motorcycle to his home at Our Lady Peace parish church in the town of Malabang in the province of Lanao del Sur. Just before dusk, four men in ski-masks flagged him down in the remote village of Diamaro.

A police spokesman, Senior Superintendent Akmad Omar, said Mr Halley had been seen talking to the men, who carried M-16 assault rifles, before they tried to drag him away. When he had resisted, the gunmen shot him in the head and fled.

Sen Supt Omar described it as a "foiled kidnapping" but said police did not know which group was responsible.Police and marines had been deployed to pursue the killers. Two other Irish missionaries had been kidnapped in the region four years ago by former Muslim separatist rebels, he said.

Mr Halley, who had been serving in the Malabang parish for 20 years, was fluent in several local dialects, Sen Supt Omar said. "This priest is well-loved by the people of Malabang because all by himself he can easily mingle with Muslims and non-Muslims in the locality." Mr Halley had been involved in promoting Muslim-Christian dialogue in Malabang and nearby Balabagan.

He had caused controversy last year when he refused to hold masses inside military camps during the offensive against the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The MILF reopened talks with the Philippine government and last month reaffirmed a 1997 ceasefire.
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August 29, 2001, The Independent, Hand grenade game kills four, 187 words

FOUR PEOPLE were killed and five wounded in the southern Philippines when a hand grenade they were playing with exploded, police said yesterday. The accident happened as the victims were passing around the grenade, pulling out and putting back its pin, while drinking in a house in Zamboanga city late on Monday. END
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September 11, 2001, The Independent, Filipino Nurses Tell of Exploitation and Abuse in Private Care Homes, 630 words
TUC CONFERENCE: Employment,

...bicycles to get to work. "There was only one bathroom in the house. They said that we were used to living like rats in the Philippines. We couldn't take any more." Janice Carandang said management at the home had insisted they did their training on their...
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September 13, 2001, The Independent, We Israelis Must Not Be Seduced by the `Great Satan' of Fanatical Hatred, by Amos Oz, 700+ words Terror in America:

A TIDE of religious and nationalistic fanaticism is on the rise throughout Islam, from the Philippines to Gaza and Libya and Algeria, from Afghanistan and Iran and Iraq to Lebanon and Sudan. Here in Israel we have been on the receiving end of this lethal tide: almost every day we witness the link between hateful incitement and mass murder, between religious sermons that celebrate jihad and their fulfilment in suicide bombs and car bombs against innocent civilians.

Being the victims of Arab and Muslim fundamentalism often blinds us to the rise of extremism not only in the domain of Islam but also in various parts of the Christian world and indeed among the Jewish people. If it turns out that America's dreadful ordeal results from the fact that mullahs and ayatollahs persistently portray her as "The Great Satan", then America, as well as Israel - "The Little Satan" - must prepare themselves for a long, hard struggle.

Perhaps it is only human that underneath the shock and the pain there is still a small voice in some of us here in Israel that says "now at last they will all understand what we are going through" or "they will finally all take our side".

But this small voice is extremely dangerous for us: it may easily seduce us into forgetting that, with or without Islamic fundamentalism, with or without Arab terrorism, there is no justification whatsoever for the lasting occupation and suppression of the Palestinian people by Israel. We have no right to deny Palestinians their natural right to self-determination. Two huge oceans could not shelter America from terrorism; the West Bank and Gaza, occupied by Israel, are certainly not securing Israel; on the contrary, they make our own self-defence much harder and much more complicated. The sooner this occupation ends, the better it is for the occupied and the occupiers alike.

It is all too easy and tempting now to fall into all sorts of racist cliches about "Muslim mentality" or "Arab character" and other such rubbish. The horrendous crime committed against the cities of New York and Washington is a sharp reminder that this is not a war between religions, nor a struggle between nations. This is, once more, the battle between fanatics, for whom the end - any end, be it religious, nationalistic or ideological - sanctifies the means, and the rest of us, who ascribe sanctity to life itself.

Despite the abhorrent manifestation of celebration and joy in Gaza and Ramallah while people in New York were still burning alive, let no decent human being forget that the vast majority of Arabs and of other Muslims are neither accomplices to the crime nor rejoicing in it. Almost all are as shocked and aggrieved as the rest of humankind. Perhaps they even have some special reason for worrying, as some ugly sounds of indiscriminate anti-Islamic feelings can already be heard in some places. Such manifestations are no proper response to this crime; on the contrary, they are playing right into the eager hands of its perpetrators.

Let us remember: neither the West nor Islam nor the Arabs is "The Great Satan". "The Great Satan" is personified in hatred and fanaticism. These two ancient mental illnesses still bedevil us. Let us be careful not to be infected.

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September 15,, 2001, The Independent, Arrests, Rumour and False Alarms as Manhunt Spans the World, by Andrew Gumbel Rome, 700+ words

AN INCREASINGLY jittery investigation into Tuesday's attacks on New York and Washington, and the network of suicide bombers behind them, spread around the world yesterday as police in at least eight countries swooped on members of Islamist groups suspected of ties to Osama bin Laden and his al-Qa'ida guerrilla group.

The frenzy of police activity included the arrest of six alleged activists in Belgium and the Netherlands, four of whom were picked up following an intelligence tip that they might be planning a strike against American targets in Europe.

In Italy, police reopened an investigation into the theft of a pilot's uniform, a badge and two US passports from American Airline employees last April. In Manila, American and Filipino authorities raided a hotel following reports that three men with Omani passports were seen videotaping the US Embassy across the street. A key arrest in the 1993 bombing of New York's World Trade Centre was made at the same hotel.

The hunt for associates of Mr bin Laden, named as the chief suspect in the attacks by the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, continued in Germany, where one man was arrested earlier this week and a young woman taken in for questioning, and also spread to Mexico and France. In Britain, anti- terrorist officers and security service agents said they were tracking suspected members of al- Qa'ida but believed they had gone into hiding since Tuesday.

In the United States, meanwhile, there were increasing signs of panic as a flurry of arrests, airport closures and reports of possible new suicide hijacking attacks appeared to be the result of over-reaction or unreliable initial leads.

Ten people of Middle Eastern origin detained at John F Kennedy airport in New York on Thursday night - a threat taken seriously enough to prompt the closure of all airports in the area - were exonerated and released yesterday. Joseph Biden, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, explained that the panic that was prompted by their apprehension was the result of a series of coincidences. One belligerent man who insisted on being allowed on to a full plane turned out to be just that - belligerent and nothing more. A man in an American Airlines uniform turned out to be an American Airlines employee on his way to a Boeing conference.

Another man thought to be carrying a fake pilot's licence turned out to be a bona fide pilot carrying his brother's identity papers as well as his own. Mr Biden told reporters: "His brother happened to live in an apartment complex that was one in Boston where some of these people had actually been. Totally, totally coincidental."

There was also a melodramatic car chase in Staten Island that turned out to be a hunt for a phantom. In Florida, meanwhile, a flight engineer for Saudi Arabian Airlines, Adnan Bukhari, was cleared of suspicion after he passed a lie- detector test and evidence emerged that his identity might have been misappropriated by the hijackers. His name, along with that of his dead brother, was apparently picked up from a rental car left at an airport in Portland, Maine, and appeared to match another Bukhari questioned following the police raid in the Philippines.

There is growing evidence that the semi-autonomous cells that planned and executed Tuesday's attacks used a variety of subterfuges and decoys to fool investigators, including fake identities, false or altered passports, and even disguises. Historically, this has often been part of the modus operandi of guerrilla networks structured by semi-autonomous cells. The precise nationalities of the dead hijackers have yet to be pinned down, as have their relationships to one another. There are many similar names in circulation and reports of several sets of brothers, but these have not been established with any precision. It is not known how many of the hijackers knew each other, or whether they were aware of any more of the plot than their own specific part in it.

The latest intelligence from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, reported in yesterday's Los Angeles Times, suggests that up to 30 people were fully trained and ready to die for their cause. John Ashcroft, the Attorney General, has said 19 hijackers had actually gone into action, suggesting that there are another 12 at large, as well as a further 20-odd suspected accomplices.

Investigators are very worried about the possibility of another attack. In addition to the arrests in New York, two men were detained in Forth Worth, Texas, on Wednesday after they were found on an Amtrak train with box-cutting knives. The FBI has not ruled out the possibility that there was a plan to hijack a fifth plane at Dallas/Fort Worth airport.

New evidence has also emerged that Tuesday's attacks were five years or more in the planning. FBI agents investigating the records of flight schools in Florida attended by the hijackers have discovered that some of them were enrolled as early as 1997, and had probably submitted applications the previous year.

It also appeared that at least five of the 10 hijackers who boarded planes in Boston had claimed links to Saudi Arabian Airlines and had thus ducked some of the standard security clearance checks for Middle Easterners. Chuck Clapper, the owner of an air charter company in Lantana, Florida, told the Boston Globe that several Florida flying schools have contracts with Saudi Arabian Airlines that enable them to bypass much of the red tape involved in obtaining visas for their students. Asked if Arabs who seek to enter the United States need to seek State Department clearance, Mr Clapper said: "Saudis don't. Iranians do. Libyans do. But the Saudis are allies, so they don't." The Saudi cover may have enabled one of the dead hijackers, Mohamad Atta, to deflect attention from the fact that he was wanted in Israel in connection with a bus bombing in 1986. Had that fact come to light, he would almost certainly have been turned down for a visa.

The Saudi connection was picked by Laurence Eagleburger, the former Secretary of State, who said yesterday that the United States had been far too lenient on its erstwhile Gulf War ally and needed to get tough about possible indulgences by the Saudis of terrorist activity.

Such criticisms and recriminations are becoming more common as the days pass, as are knee-jerk responses to skin colour and nationality by US law enforcement officials supposedly banned from indulging in "racial profiling". One passenger at JFK, Mike Glass of Seattle, told The New York Times: "Anyone with dark skin or who spoke with an accent was taken aside and searched. And then they went to any male with too much facial hair."

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September 11, 2001, The Independent, America at War: Revealed for the First Time, the Truth about the World's Most Wanted Man; IoS Investigation ; the Truth about the Prime Suspect for the World's Worst Terrorist Atrocity Is Shrouded in Myth and Misinformation. but in a Special Investigation for the Independent on Sunday, Chris Blackhurst Gained Unprecedented Access to Private Dossiers, Friends and Family to Reveal the Real Osama Bin Laden, by Chris Blackhurst, 700+ words

Osama bin Laden has never received funding from the US Central Intelligence Agency and does not have a huge fortune, say sources close to the fugitive terrorist leader.

An Independent on Sunday investigation has gained unprecedented access to an exhaustive dossier on the life of the world's most wanted man. Including material supplied anonymously by a bin Laden relative and fellow Saudi dissidents, it paints a remarkable picture of the suspected instigator of last week's carnage, countering the widely accepted notion that he accepted aid from the CIA. It also suggests that far from being able to draw upon a $300m fortune, a claim made regularly in the Western press, his wealth amounts to no more than a few million dollars.

Mr bin Laden has survived numerous assassination and kidnap attempts, achieving almost mythical status among his militant Muslim supporters. They do not believe his mountain hideaway will be penetrated, and they point to a secret planned raid by US special forces in 1997 which had to be aborted. This and a series of other incidents have contributed towards Mr bin Laden being seen by his followers as a virtual superman.

It was not always so. Like other figures who went on to become monsters, much of his life was relatively carefree and mundane. Osama, or to give him his family spelling, Ussama, was born in 1957, the seventh son among 54 children (an incredible tally in Western eyes but not in the Muslim world where more than one wife is common). In all, his father had 30 wives. His mother was Syrian, his father a South Yemeni. Mohammed Awad, his father, emigrated to Saudi Arabia around 1930. He was poor and worked as a porter in Jeddah. By the time he died in 1970, he was the owner of the biggest construction company in the Saudi kingdom. Mohammed made his big break by tendering to build palaces for King Saud at much lower rates than his rivals. He became close to the royal family, especially Faisal. In the Saud-Faisal power struggle in the 1960s he persuaded Saud to stand down in favour of Faisal.

When Saud went, the government coffers were bare and Mr bin Laden paid the whole country's civil servants' wages for six months. Such support did not go unrewarded: he was made minister of public works and all projects were to go to Mohammed's firm. According to members of the bin Laden family, their father was a devoted Muslim; not crazily so, just a regular worshipper. He was also humble, despite his wealth, keeping his old bag from his days as a porter as a reminder of where he had come from. Bin Laden senior was a tough character, ordering his children to follow a special daily regime he had devised for them. From an early age, they were expected to behave confidently and politely. Several of the children, though not Osama, were educated in more Western Arab countries such as Egypt, and travelled widely.

Osama's father died when he was 13. Four years later he married a Syrian girl who was also a distant member of his family. Today he has four wives. He was religious but, like his father, not especially so. At school and university he joined the Muslim Brotherhood. Again, this was not extraordinary: his interest, like many others of his age, was scholarly. Certainly, say those who knew him from that time he was not the zealot he is today.

Contrary to reports, claim Saudi sources, the only countries he has been to are those on the Arabian peninsula, Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sudan. Stories of trips to Switzerland, Philippines and London are all unfounded.

At university, Islam was compulsory, and he was taught by two renowned scholars: Abdulla Azzam, who later became a major figure in Afghanistan, and Mohammed Quttub, a writer and philosopher. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the young and well-off bin Laden went to Pakistan and was taken by his hosts, Jammat Islami, to meet the refugees and their leaders. When he returned he collected money and supplies for the Afghan resistance, the Mujahedin. He made another trip to deliver the aid, taking with him Afghan and Pakistani workers from the Bin Laden Company. In 1982, Mr bin Laden reinforced his links with the Mujahedin, sending them equipment and arms.

He spent more time in Afghanistan and became involved in gun battles with the Soviets. As a wealthy Saudi he stood out. Other Arabs followed him. Two years later, he opened a guesthouse in Peshawar, which became a stopping-off point for Arab Mujahedin fighters. At the same time, Abdullah Azzam, his old mentor, launched the Jihad Service Bureau, a Mujahedin press and publishing centre, in Peshawar. The town, with its guesthouse and media bureau, became a focus for Saudi and other Arab guerrillas. Numbers became so large that Mr bin Laden built camps for the Arab Mujahedin inside Afghanistan. He assumed command, although the legion had been joined by former officers from Egypt, Syria, Saudi and Algeria. This was remarkable.

Mr bin Laden is shy, says little and is studiously serious, none of the usual qualities attributed to a leader of soldiers. He deliberately set himself apart from the rest, preferring to read and think alone (or to be seen reading and thinking, thus adding to his allure). He does, though, have more of the attributes associated with mythical warriors than any son of a Saudi multi-millionaire. He is tall, lean and has high cheekbones. His fellow soldiers could not fail to be impressed by his dedication.

Whatever he lacked in experience, Mr bin Laden made up with organisational skills, and was adept at managing the media. He was brave, unafraid to face enemy fire. Overall, he was bombed 40 times. He was wounded several times and hospitalised more than once. He was also extremely careful. Try as they might, the Soviets could not kill him.

Early on, he realised that any unknown package, any unexpected visitor could spell danger. While other commanders died, Mr bin Laden lived. From 1984 to 1989, he was a committed soldier, leading his foreign legionnaires in at least six major encounters with the Soviets. To many people in the Islamic world, he began to cut a romantic, T E Lawrence-type figure, a freedom fighter against the oppressive Soviet invader.

In 1988, he decided to put his affairs and those of his colleagues on a firmer footing. He gave the umbrella group for his guesthouse and camps a name: Al-Qa'edah, Arabic for "the base". Talk of the CIA funding him and assisting him at this time, say Mr bin Laden and his supporters, is unfounded. They even go further, to insist he has never had any contact with US officials. The CIA did back the Mujahedin, but these, they say, were different factions from Mr bin Laden's.

He was always a committed Muslim, believing his struggle was as much about defending his religion as defeating the Soviet Union. (It would be wrong, though, to suppose this automatically made him a religious fanatic because his views were shared by many Muslims.) From his Muslim Brotherhood days he had an anti-US streak - again, not uncommon among young Muslims - and had feared for US encroachment in Saudi.

The idea he needed US money, say his close associates, is not true, either. He was of independent means; he knew rich Saudis; many of his fundamentalist followers were themselves idealists from relatively wealthy families and the weapons they used were cheap. After the Soviets withdrew in 1989, Mr bin Laden returned home. Fired by his success in Afghanistan, he wanted to start a new front or jihad in South Yemen. The Saudis, alarmed at the prospect of his growing power, banned him from leaving. The restriction did not silence him. He denounced Saddam Hussein, claiming the Iraqi leader was about to invade Kuwait. In Saudi, such behaviour did not endear him to the authorities. He was told to shut up and refused, but all the time he was quietly advising the Saudi King Fahd of the danger coming from Iraq.

Today, Mr bin Laden is always described as a Saudi dissident. It was not always so. In those days he was loyal to the Saudi royal family. When he warned about Iraq they listened; all they asked was that he kept his strictures private. His contact with the Saudi rulers was via two of his brothers. They were close to two senior Saudi ministers who received his messages and passed them on to the king. He stayed distant from Saudi intelligence, which he saw as under the influence of the US.

Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait should have been Mr bin Laden's finest hour in Saudi: the putting to use of everything he had learned in the war against the Soviets for the benefit of his home country. In fact, it proved anything but. He sent a "told you so" letter to Fahd, setting out how the kingdom could defend itself with its own forces. All his Al- Qa'edah forces would relocate to Saudi Arabia, promised Mr bin Laden. There would be a huge surge in Arab Mujahedin, he claimed. Instead of grabbing his plan, Fahd was dismissive. Worse, Fahd sent for the Americans. This was a shattering blow, "the most shocking moment of my life" Mr bin Laden has called it.
Depressed and ignored, he cut himself off from the royal family and sought solace with religious scholars. At his request, they issued a fatwa that military training was a religious duty. He went into overdrive, circulating the edict throughout Saudi and persuading people to head for Afghanistan for their training. Around 4,000 made the trip. The Saudis moved against him. He was taken in for questioning, more to scare him than anything else. The die was cast: he had to leave the country. Claiming he needed to go overseas temporarily to sort out a business difficulty, Mr bin Laden went straight to Pakistan, from where he sent a letter to his brother saying he would not return and apologising for the deceit.

He could not stay in Pakistan - he did not trust the Pakistani authorities to extradite him to Saudi - so went straight to Afghanistan. There he tried to act as a peace broker between the rival factions. His own Mujahedin were ordered to stay out because, he said, it was not their place to get drawn into domestic politics. Rightly or wrongly, the Saudis and Pakistanis, both of whom were increasingly reliant on the US, saw him as a target. Attempts were made to kidnap or kill him. At the end of 1991, he fled to what he saw as a safer haven, in Sudan.
Contrary to reports, say his friends, his motivation was not to embark on another jihad in Africa. Sudan was under purist Muslim rulers, desperately poor and in urgent need of his engineering and construction expertise. The Sudanese government welcomed him, but they were also wary, refusing for a time to allow his Al-Qa'edah followers to go anywhere near the troubled south of the country. It was hard, though, for ministers not to embrace the new arrival. He threw himself into large-scale building projects.

His move to Sudan provoked suspicion in Saudi and the US. Sudan was one of the few countries to support Iraq in the Gulf War. Secretly, the Saudis outlawed him, freezing his assets in the kingdom. In Sudan, though, bin Laden and Al-Qa'edah became symbols of good, running aid programmes and attracting their wealthy Saudi contacts to invest in the country.

In 1994, the Saudis went public with their hostility and withdrew his citizenship. His response was to disavow his ties to the modern Saudi Arabia and to form, with other opponents, the Advice and Reform Committee or ARC. This was a political lobbying group, issuing plenty of hot air about the Saudi regime but not openly advocating violence. But terrorism did occur, and much of it laid at Mr bin Laden's door. A car bomb in Riyadh in 1995 was blamed on him, with the Saudis producing video "confessions" from four Afghans for the attack. It was possible they were acting on his orders. But it is worth remembering that thousands of would-be Muslim fighters went through his camps. As with the atrocities in the US, making a direct link with Mr bin Laden was difficult.

The Saudis and their American allies stepped up pressure on Sudan to expel Mr bin Laden. Seeing the writing on the wall, he went first, back to Afghanistan. His chief supporter was Yunis Khalis, who later became a key figure in the Taliban.

Another bomb, in Saudi, pointed to Mr bin Laden and his militia. At ease in Afghanistan where he was revered, he turned his attention to the source of what he saw as the harm being done to his homeland. He issued a "declaration of war" against the US. Twelve pages long, it called for America's removal from the Arabian peninsula. When the Taliban swept to power in late 1996, Mr bin Laden was unsure of his position. He need not have worried. The Taliban embraced him, admiring and thanking him for his struggle. They saw him as a rich Saudi who gave up everything for the jihad. He was a hero, someone they were honour bound to save. His protection was guaranteed. They respected him even more when he advised them against exploitation from Pakistani businessmen.

Two factors may weigh against Mr bin Laden with the Taliban. One is that the US does provide clear, irrefutable evidence of his involvement in last week's attacks. That will lie heavily with the Taliban who find themselves being persecuted for harbouring someone for starting a war they did not sanction.

They are men of principle: bombing without proof will not move them. The other is the thought that Mr bin Laden's power exceeds their own. Otherwise, and he is adept at keeping good relations with the Taliban, he is safe. Their attitude towards him was reinforced when his Arab Mujahedin fought to secure Kabul against Afghan rebels in the north. Towards the end of 1997, the Americans tried to capture Mr bin Laden, planning a special forces raid and rehearsing it in Pakistan. The mission was aborted as being too difficult.

Mr bin Laden's mood hardened. When religious scholars in Afghanistan issued a fatwa, possibly at his behest, calling for the expulsion of Americans by any means from the region, he saw it as giving him the licence he needed. To the worry of Saudi and Western security agencies, he embarked on an expansion drive. Previously, his followers had been drawn from the Arab world. Now he went pan- Islamic, seeking and attracting comrades from the former Soviet republics, Pakistan and India. He saw himself as infallible and went on a media offensive. For some time, a vicious spiral had been forming. Muslim terrorists were arrested in the West and said to be bin Laden followers. Bombs exploded at the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Again, they were attributed to Mr bin Laden. They may well have been but the US vitriol served only to enhance his legend among militant Muslims. That status was enhanced even further when the US launched its missile strikes against what it said were his bases in Sudan and Afghanistan, and the Sudan target turned out to be a harmless factory.

The strike in Sudan was a disaster for the US. In the Arab world, Mr bin Laden became seen as the one man who could withstand the might of America. He has three sorts of supporter: those under his direct command who number a few hundred and are based in Afghanistan; a wider group of militants who are spread out across the world; and non-active admirers. It is the middle group that causes most worry. Probably trained in one of his camps, they have spread out, some to the West, where to all intents and purposes they lead normal lives. They do not need to be in contact with Mr bin Laden. Their struggle is his struggle; he has gone from being field commander to spiritual inspiration.

He is nowhere near as rich as reports suggest; "a few million at most" said one family member. His assets in Saudi were long frozen. The family firm still exists but he has cut himself off from his relatives. He was also forced to liquidate some smaller businesses when one of his followers made a rare defection to the Saudi side. In the early days, he did receive donations, especially from Saudi, but these are thought to have dried up.

On the other hand, why does he need a huge amount of money? He lives abstemiously. Many of his followers had access to their own money before joining him. He does not fight an expensive, hi-tech war. In the region he inhabits weapons are cheaper than staple foods. The hijackers last week carried small knives and boxes they said they were bombs. His finances would, though, stretch to some flying courses and some flight simulator software. If he was responsible.

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September 11, 2001, The Independent, Amid Calls for Restraint in Retaliation, Millions Gather to Pray and Pay Homage, by Paul Peachey, 700+ words Terror in America: The Commemorations -

MILLIONS OF people attended religious services yesterday as the world paused to reflect on the horrific death toll from the terrorist attacks on the United States.

As President George Bush pondered the nature of American retaliation against the perpetrators, church leaders called for restraint to prevent the deaths of thousands more innocent victims.

A multifaith vigil of prayer and reflection was held at Westminster Abbey and the Duke and Duchess of York, their two children and the American ambassador to Britain, William Farish, joined hundreds for a service of "hope and healing" at the American Church in London. The size of the congregation meant several hundred more prayed outside on the pavement.

The Rev Dr Stephen Rettenmayer told the congregation that he hoped the American leadership would act beyond a "higher standard than uncontrolled rage that could lead to even more innocent suffering and loss of life".

Since the outrages last Tuesday, more than 2,000 people have visited the church in central London, set up for the American expatriate community more than 30 years ago. Many of the congregation lined up yesterday to sign books of condolence. Deborah Zucker, a churchgoer, said after the service: "Everybody's just looking to be next to each other to get through this and to heal, and rise from the ashes."

Thousands of members of Britain's 600,000-strong Sikh community said prayers at the National Sikh Convention at the Guru Nanak Gurdwara in Blakenhall, Wolverhampton. They also prayed for Sikhs caught up in a backlash against ethnic minorities provoked by the atrocities.

In Italy, Pope John Paul II said he was "heartbroken" at the loss of life from the attack. Before he arrived for a service at Frosinone, near Rome, a choir sang "Blowin' in the Wind" and waved an American flag. "To all the children of this great nation, I direct my heartbroken and shared thoughts," he said to applause from the large crowd. He also said the Virgin Mary "supports those families who are particularly tried, and helps all to resist the temptation of hate and violence and to commit themselves to the service of justice and peace".

John Howard, the Australian Prime Minister, joined a congregation at a church in Sydney during a day of mourning. The victims include almost 70 Australians still missing from the World Trade Centre.

In the Philippines, a largely Catholic country, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Cardinal Jaime Sin led a Mass at Manila cathedral to pray for the victims. Two Filipinos have been confirmed among the dead and several more are missing.

Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, the head of Lebanon's Maronite Church, held a special Mass in the town of Jounieh. He condemned the "heinous crime" against the United States and called for harsh punishment against those behind it.

Countless acts of remembrance were also played out at major arts, cultural and sporting events around the globe. Every professional football match in Britain over the weekend was preceded by a minute's silence. The start of yesterday's Serie A games in Italy were put back by 15 minutes to honour the dead.

Michael Schumacher, the Formula One world champion from Germany, drove his Ferrari with no advertising and a black nose cone at yesterday's Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Jaguar cars also blacked out their leaping cat logos in a mark of respect.

Runners preparing for the Great North Run on Tyneside, the world's biggest half-marathon, also held a minute's silence before the start of the race. Many Stars and Stripes banners were visible among the 40,000 runners.

Silences were also observed before the start of the 225th running of the St Leger horse race at Doncaster on Saturday and at Sydney's Olympic Park before the cauldron was relit to commemorate the opening ceremony of the Games in the city a year ago.

"The Olympic spirit kindled here just a year ago was never more needed than now," the state premier of New South Wales, Bob Carr, said.
The usual buoyant celebration of the Last Night of the Proms at the Albert Hall in London was replaced by more sober reflection on Saturday night when the British and US national anthems were played back to back. A minute's silence for the dead was also held before Barber's "Adagio" was played.


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September 21, 2001, The Independent, Terror in America: The Suspects - the Men Who Brought the World to Brink of War, by Andrew Gumbel, 700+ words

THIS IS a summary of what investigators have learned about the hijackers who attacked New York and Washington on September 11:

American Airlines Flight 11

Mohamed Atta, aged 33, from Egypt
Atta, believed to have piloted the flight, had spent four months training on small planes. In the 1990s, he lived in Daytona Beach, Florida, where he returned in May - with another alleged hijacker, Marwan al-Shehhi, a former flatmate from his university days in Hamburg. Atta and another suspect, Abdulaziz Alomari, were filmed at Portland airport before leaving for Boston on 11 September. His father says he may have been murdered and had his documents stolen.

Waleed al-Shehri, age unknown, Saudi Arabia
Al-Shehri and his brother, Wail, are believed to have fought in Afghanistan. But the New York Times reported the real al-Shehri is abroad. Al-Shehri learned to fly at the Embry-Riddle university in Florida.

Wail al-Shehri, 28, Saudi Arabia
The FBI says he sat next to his brother, Waleed, on Flight 11. He was also believed to have been a trained pilot. His father says he is alive.

Abdulaziz al-Omari, 29, Saudi Arabia
Al-Omari was on the passenger list next to Mohamed Atta. But there have been reports that the real Al-Omari, a pilot, is alive in Saudi Arabia.

Satam al-Suqami, 25, Saudi Arabia
Suqami's passport was discovered in the rubble of the World Trade Centre. Along with Ahmed al-Ghamdi, he has been tied by the FBI to a former cab driver now on trial for a series of foiled bombings in Jordan.

United Airlines Flight 175

Ahmed al-Ghamdi, 21, Saudi Arabia
Al-Ghamdi had a Florida ID card. He went to Chechnya two years ago from Saudi Arabia. The day before the attacks, he left the Philippines.

Marwan al-Shehhi, 23, United Arab Emirates
One of the three alleged hijackers to have attended university in Hamburg, al-Shehhi was seen drinking in a Florida bar four days before the attacks. He went to flying school in Florida with Mohamed Atta.

Fayez Ahmed, 28
Thought to have lived in Delray Beach, Florida, Ahmed held a pilot's licence and was listed as having trained in Tulsa, Oklahoma, although the school had no record of him attending.

Mohald al-Shehri, 28
Al-Shehri, a qualified pilot, lived in Vero Beach, Florida, and records show he attended the FlightSafety academy.

Hamza al-Ghamdi, 20
Al-Ghamdi lived for several months at Delray Racquet Club in Delray Beach, Florida, with Ahmed al-Nami and Saeed al-Ghamdi, his cousin. He was on a tourist visa and is believed to have been a pilot.

American Airlines Flight 77

Khalid al-Midhar
Al-Midhar flew a Cessna in San Diego last year. His English skills did not meet federal standards and the classes were stopped after two flights. Saudi officials say that he may be alive. He has been on a CIA watch list since January last year.

Nawaq al-Hamzi, 25, Saudi Arabia
Al-Hamzi is thought to have stayed near Washington with Ziad Jarrah on September 1. Recently, he used an address in Florida, near an apartment complex used by two other hijackers.

Hani Hanjour, mid-20s, Saudi Arabia
Hanjour obtained a pilot's licence in April 1999 with a rating to fly commercial jets. He is believed to have flown over Washington airspace on three occasions in a Cessna shortly before the attacks.

Salem al-Hamzi, 21, Saudi Arabia
Al-Hamzi was listed on a database in the Federal Aviation Administration's airman directory and is known to have left for Chechnya 18 months ago.

Majed Moqed
Moqed ordered his ticket via the internet through the same frequent flier number as Khalid al-Midhar and paid for it in cash.
United Airlines Flight 93

Crashed in Pennsylvania

Saeed al-Ghamdi, age unknown, Saudi Arabia
This name was probably taken from an innocent Saudi pilot who used to work at Logan Airport in Boston and had his passport stolen.
A man using this name was living at the Delray Racquet Club and was listed by the FBI as having an address at the FlightSafety academy. Students there claim not to have known him. He is believed to have visited the Philippines at least 15 times in the last year.

Ziad Jarrah, 27, Lebanon
Paid for three nights at the Pin Del Motel in Laurel, outside Washington, on August 27, but left the next day. He gave a Florida address. Studied in Germany from 1996 to 1999 when he moved to Florida. His father sent money to start a part-time pilot's course in Miami.

Ahmed al-Nami, 23, Saudi Arabia
Last December, al-Nami was living in Delray Beach, Florida, with Saeed al-Ghamdi. His father said he dropped out of college and disappeared 15 months ago. A resident of the Delray Racquet Club complex said she thought he was drug dealer because she saw men there at all hours carrying bags.

Ahmed al-Haznawi, 20
Al-Haznawi entered the US on a Saudi passport and lived in Lauderdale- by-the-Sea with Ziad Jarrah. He also used a Delray Beach address.


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September 25, 2001, The Independent, The West Battles to Root out Network of Terror Cells ; the Target, by Raymond Whitaker, 700+ words WAR ON TERRORISM - THE TERROR LINKS;

THE MILITARY wing of Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'ida organisation has trained fighters for armed conflicts in almost every continent, according to intelligence officials engaged in the campaign to destroy his network of terrorism.

American and European intelligence agencies are scrambling to identify and shut down these terror cells on their territory, but from Africa to the Philippines Muslim fighters have emerged from his training camps in Afghanistan to inject a higher level of sophistication and violence into new wars, as well as conflicts that were on the verge of sputtering out.

Up to 11,000 terrorists, many recruited from the poorer Arab countries, have passed through the camps, along with contingents from a host of other Muslim nations and regions, including Pakistan, Chechnya, and central and south-east Asia.

Pakistan, which presided over the birth of the Taliban, sought a supply of Afghan-trained recruits for the struggle in Indian-ruled Kashmir, which has a Muslim majority. On its own soil, however, it has reaped a whirlwind of armed violence, drug-smuggling and Muslim sectarianism.

India reported yesterday that the Kashmir conflict had eased as Islamic zealots moved towards Afghanistan, where a local official said the country had not yet decided to let them in.

In at least two insurgencies - in Algeria and the Muslim southern Philippines - the arrival of the "Afghani", as the fighters call themselves, has brought new levels of bloodshed and shattered chances of negotiated settlements.

In the Bosnia and Chechnya conflicts, a new degree of extremism was introduced by the arrival of foreign Muslims inspired by the al- Qa'ida network to fight anywhere they see Islam as being under threat.

CENTRAL ASIA
The Fergana valley, straddling three former Soviet republics in central Asia, is the base for the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which is reported to be funded and trained by the bin Laden network. The IMU, whose estimated 3,000 militants are bent on overthrowing the Uzbek government and establishing an Islamic state, has been active since the early 1990s in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Their leader, Juma Namangani, has been sentenced to death in absentia by the Uzbek government.

US intelligence believes the fighters were trained at a former Soviet military base operated by the bin Laden organisation near Mazar-I-Sharif in northern Afghanistan.

INDONESIA AND THE PHILIPPINES
Mr bin Laden is believed to have joined forces with an extremist Indonesian Islamic group, Lashkar Jihad. An Indonesian army chief, Lt-Gen Kiki Syahnakri, warned recently of Mr bin Laden's presence in the country. The leader of Lashkar Jihad, Ja'far Umar Thalib, fought in Afghanistan alongside Mr bin Laden and has said he supported the attack on the World Trade Centre, although he says his group has no ties to Mr bin Laden. At least four of the 19 men named by the FBI as responsible for the 11 September attacks had visited the Philippines.

AFRICA
Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-'Owhali, a young Saudi militant who survived the US embassy bombings in 1998 in Kenya and Tanzania, has allegedly led FBI investigators to a Sudanese national, Jamal Ahmed al-Fadl, resident in New York, who gave the Americans their first clear picture of al-Qa'ida. Sudan, which has the only Sunni Muslim government, is one of seven states still accused by the US of sponsoring international terrorism. Mr bin Laden lived in its capital, Khartoum, until 1995, and allegedly trained terrorists there. The government now says it is doing all it can to assist US investigators.

LATIN AMERICA
Mr bin Laden used Lima, the Peruvian capital, as his Latin American rest area, according to a Peruvian former spy chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, righthand man of the ousted president Alberto Fujimori.

On 10 September, the US Congressional Research Service said extremist cells linked to Mr bin Laden were believed to be operating in Uruguay and Ecuador. American and Colombian officials believe that Arab extremist groups have established a foothold in Colombia.

GERMANY
German domestic intelligence estimates that 100 "sleepers" of the bin Laden organisation are on German soil. Three years ago police arrested Mamduh Mahmud Salim, believed to be Mr bin Laden's deputy in charge of finance. He was extradited to the US, where he is awaiting trial on a charge of conspiracy.

It is from Frankfurt that the attempted bombing of the European Parliament in Strasbourg at the end of last year was planned. Also in Frankfurt, a gun battle two years ago between a group of Algerians and police yielded a link to Mr bin Laden. One of the Algerians had been trained at a bin Laden camp. Police found on a gunman the mobile telephone number of Abu Zubada, a leader of the bin Laden organisation.

KOSOVO AND BOSNIA
Serbian intelligence sources claim Mr bin Laden and organisations close to him were involved in training the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Sources in Kosovo say that people connected to Mr bin Laden did offer the KLA assistance in 1998, but that it was refused.

PALESTINE
Shin Bet, Israel's security service, believes Nabil Oukal, a 27- year- old Palestinian who was arrested last year as he crossed into the Gaza Strip from Egypt, was returning with orders to set up a bin Laden-sponsored guerrilla force. The Israelis say that Mr Oukal confessed to having undergone military training in a bin Laden camp in Afghanistan.

Additional reporting by Imre Karacs in Berlin, Anne Penketh in London, Fred Weir in Moscow, Alex Duval Smith, Phil Reeves in Jerusalem, Vesna Peric Zimonjic in Belgrade and Justin Huggler in Prague.

`We ask God to make us defeat infidels'

THIS IS the full text of the statement attributed to Osama bin Laden, released to the Arabic news network al-Jazeera and translated by CNN:

"To our Muslim brothers in Pakistan, peace be upon you.

"The news of the death of our brother Muslims in Karachi while expressing their opposition to the crusade of American forces and their allies on Muslim lands Pakistan and Afghanistan has reached us with great sorrow.

"We ask God to accept them as martyrs and to join them with the prophets, the caliphs and the martyrs and those of goodwill and to provide for their families. Those who left behind children are my children and I will, God willing, take care of them.

"It's not a surprise that the Muslim nation in Pakistan will die defending Islam. It is considered on the front line of defending Islam. As Afghanistan was on the front line of defending itself and Pakistan during the Russian invasion more than 20 years ago.

"We hope that these brothers will be the first martyrs in the battle of Islam in this era against the new Jewish and Christian crusader campaign that is led by the Chief Crusader Bush under the banner of the cross.

"We tell our Muslim brothers in Pakistan to use all their means to resist the invasion of the American crusader forces in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"I convey to you good news my beloved brothers that we are steadfast in the way of jihad following in the footsteps of the prophet - peace be upon him - with the believing heroes, the people of Afghanistan and under the leadership of our prince, the warrior Mullah Mohammed Omar.

"We ask God to make us defeat the infidels and the oppressors and to crush the new Jewish-Christian crusader campaign on the land of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"If God allows you to win, there will be no defeat; if he chooses that you will be defeated, nothing will allow you to win. Therefore, you must depend on God.

"Your brother in Islam,

(signed) Osama bin Mohammad bin Laden."

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September 26, 2001, The Independent, Freezing the Finances of Terrorists Is Not as Easy as Bush May Think, by Chris Blackhurst, 700+ words War on Terrorism:

GEORGE BUSH is going to wage economic war on terrorism. Good luck to him - he is going to need it.

That was the reaction yesterday among law enforcement officers and financial investigators as they absorbed the gung-ho announcement. The same people who tried and failed to cut off the funds of drug barons in Colombia, South-east Asia and elsewhere, emitted a resounding belly laugh. Presumably, the same branding experts in Washington who advise Presidents to come up with slogans such as the "war against drugs" and "the war against terrorism" are also responsible for the idea that tracing the finances of a terrorism network is a piece of cake.

Just how difficult this particular war is going to be was evident yesterday when two of the organisations on Mr Bush's list of 27 that should have their assets frozen promised to fight any such order. "We are purely a humanitarian organisation and have nothing to do with terrorism," said Mohammed Abdullah, a spokesman of the Al- Rashid Trust. "Our mission is to serve humanity and we will continue our work be it war or sanctions."

Al-Rashid Trust is an Islamic charity organisation in Afghanistan. It provides subsidised food to at least 300,000 impoverished Afghans and runs health and education programmes. The group also built several mosques along the road from Kandahar to Kabul and on the road to the Pakistani border town of Torkham. "So far, the Pakistani authorities haven't taken any action," said Mr Abdullah. "We will go to court if Pakistan takes any action to appease the Americans."

Harkat-ul Mujahedeen is an Islamic guerrilla group fighting Indian forces in the disputed Kashmir region. It also said the US decision was unjustified. "We condemn the terrorist strikes in the United States," Ameeruddin Mughal, a spokesman for the group said. "We hope the Americans don't rush with their decision of targeting organisations like ours which have nothing to do with America and have now no role in Afghanistan. We are only fighting in Kashmir."

When planes crashed into the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and the fields outside Pittsburgh, the 19th Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime was in session. The conference brings together several hundred police, intelligence officers, lawyers, academics and politicians from around the world to discuss the difficulties of combating organised crime. There is always a theme to the week. This year's, with remarkable foresight, was "The Hiding of Wealth".

It is doubtful if Mr Bush has read the papers from the symposium, although there are always many Americans present. For, if he had, it is unlikely he would be so confident, as he put it, of "choking off" the lifeblood of the terrorists.

Every year, speakers have a good whinge, about the lack of trust between agencies, incompatible legal systems and the way banks, law firms and governments refuse to co-operate when pressed. This year was no exception.

High-ranking delegates all said the same thing: international co- operation was not working. Rosalind Wright from Britain's Serious Fraud Office blamed the desire for profit by law firms for claiming lawyer-client privilege when her officials wanted to ask awkward questions.
In another presentation, David Chaikin, a leading fraud lawyer from Australia, played a videotape of a banker from Switzerland repeatedly denying her bank maintained an account for the disgraced former Philippines president, Ferdinand Marcos. Finally, she relented: her bank did have an account, "but only a small one, for a few million".

A week later, Mr Bush revealed a key strand of his global strategy. "We're asking the world to stop payment," he said. "We're putting banks and financial institutions around the world on notice."

For that to happen, for terrorists to find they cannot afford the next cargo of Semtex or a round of flying lessons, much will have to change in the world's financial and legal systems. Bank secrecy and lawyer-client confidentiality will have to be waived. States which have built a nice little earner on promoting themselves as secretive offshore havens will have to change their ways. Countries will have to be far less precious about allowing law officers from another jurisdiction to crawl over their banking systems. Companies, banks and law firms will have to ask searching questions of their customers - even at the risk of losing business. Intelligence agencies will have to suspend their mutual suspicion and work together. Laws about seizure of property will have to be changed. Law enforcement bodies will require extra manpower and resources.

It is a tall order. Too tall, say those already versed in the failure of the "war against drugs". The organiser of the Cambridge conference is Professor Barry Rider, director of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and an expert in combating financial crime. Professor Rider said:

"I can count on one hand the number of Drug Enforcement Agency successes in tracing and freezing assets of drug barons. You can develop intelligence that makes you question someone's wealth but developing systems to do anything about it is quite different."

Bill Tupman, a senior lecturer in politics at Exeter University, has made an extensive study of international organised crime. He holds out little hope for Mr Bush's economic war. "We've never closed down the IRA, the South Africans never closed down the ANC," he said.

In Britain, our record of tracing and seizing the assets of the IRA is lamentable - not through want of trying but because it is so difficult. For years, the Northern Ireland Office had a special unit charged with cutting off the Provisionals' funds. It knew who was involved, it knew where they were getting the cash from but it could not get to the money. Only about pounds 6m of IRA money was frozen and only a handful of prosecutions were brought.

The Northern Ireland Office resorted to a different tack. Instead of going after the money in bank accounts, it tried to stifle the activities that yielded the cash. Suddenly, social clubs in West Belfast found themselves being visited over and over again by VAT inspectors. This forced them to keep better paper records or risk going out of business. The resulting disruption did have some impact on the IRA's finances.

While investigations are ponderous, the transfer of money, especially today, is instantaneous. "Investigators are always 28 transactions behind even if they are 10 seconds late," said Martin Bridges, a partner at Deloitte and Touche specialising in fraud and asset-tracing. "These days, in reality, they are 10 hours, 10 weeks or 10 months too late".

But this is not the time for doing nothing. President Bush has to be seen to be acting - even if that is all it is.


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September 30, 2001, The Independent, Laundering body on terrorist alert, by Heather Tomlinson, 391 words

The G7 finance ministers are considering expanding the role of international money laundering watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force, to cover terrorist financing.

Much of its current role, which involves monitoring and recommending action on money laundering, covers methods terrorists use to move cash around the world. These include the alternative banking system, Hawala, thought to be used by Osama bin Laden's network.

But tracking terrorist monies requires a more specialist approach. Terrorist money laundering often involves smaller amounts of cash, coming from sources other than drug dealing and organised crime. FATF would ensure it monitors money movements by terrorist networks even if it does not come from the proceeds of crime.

Patrick Moulette, executive secretary of FATF, said it is consulting with the finance ministers about extending its monitoring of terrorists.
With 29 member countries, FATF carries much clout in clamping down on states involved in money laundering. It monitors global anti- money laundering laws, puts non-cooperative countries on a blacklist, and recommends measures against them if the laws are not improved.

In June it recommended measures against Russia, Nauru and the Philippines if they did not tighten up anti-money laundering strategies. They then speeded up anti-money laundering legislation through their respective governments. It is hoped to introduce similar measures against countries that are a conduit for terrorists' cash.

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September 30, 2001, The Independent, Why America the Giant Will Always Make Enemies ; People Have Always Found Reasons to Hate and Fear the United States. but a New and Virulent Hostility Is the Most Dangerous Yet, by Hugh Brogan, 700+ words

No one should be blamed for an extravagant immediate reaction to the events of 11 September. But as the days and weeks go by, an anti- American strand is developing in the debate about an apposite response which itself misses the point. It is easy to blame the victim.
Traditional anti-Americanists, in Britain at any rate, have always been a minority but to a historian, or indeed to anyone who has lived through the years since the Second World War, they are wearisomely familiar. It seems necessary to explain, in the present context, why they are mistaken. It is also worth making the point that a new sort of anti-Americanism is burgeoning, equally wrong- headed but very different and more consequential.

During the 1950s someone - I think it was my father - remarked that Joe McCarthy was the first individual American ever to be feared or hated in the world at large. Until 1945 the United States was seen as it still wishes to appear - as the great refuge, the land of freedom and prosperity, of promise and opportunity for the little people; an example and a beacon to all nations struggling against colonialism. Even Ho Chi Minh hoped for American support when he first raised his flag of rebellion.

This reputation was not altogether deserved: America had colonies in the Philippines, Panama and Puerto Rico, and had shut the golden door with the anti-immigration laws of the early 1920s. It was in many respects a brutally racist society; but when do image and reality ever exactly coincide? The disjunction between them was far worse in the instance of the Soviet Union. On the whole the United States had earned its popularity abroad. It retains much of it to this day.

But nowadays, we are repeatedly told that America is widely hated. In the face of the mass executions meted out in New York and Washington that can hardly be denied, and it is important to ask why, if only so as to be able to handle the consequences.

Originally, anti-Americanism was the offspring of the Cold War. The victors of 1945 fell out and both sides to the quarrel did all they could to weaken and discredit each other. Much of the left in the West was worm-eaten by Soviet propaganda and, by their excesses, the anti-communist right in America inflamed anti-Americanism. Disputes over Cold War issues were engaged more vigorously in the United States than anywhere else - and mattered more. Their echoes reached Europe and seemed heaven-sent to nations which, whether governed by the left or right, resented their countries' decline of influence compared to the giant in the West.

The fact that he was anything but a selfish giant made matters no better: in Hampstead and on the Boulevard Saint-Germain his benevolence was resented as a humiliation. Characteristically, the British left sneered at Harry Truman as a failed haberdasher, snobbery being as ever our country's darling vice, while the French scorned American materialism. Who would want those new-fangled, imported tractors and refrigerators? The answer was: French peasants and French housewives. Over all these squabbles loomed the shadow of the bomb. Under that dreadful threat it was very difficult to think straight.

The climax came with the Cuban missile crisis. Reaction to that emergency was curiously similar to today's agitation. Grosvenor Square filled with demonstrators denouncing American militarism. Bertrand Russell and the New Statesman vociferated. Panic and prejudice caused these outbursts, which bore little relation to the facts of the crisis; and they had little or no effect on the standing of America and its leader. Certain parallels leap to mind.

The war in Vietnam brought a real change. As before, the greatest hostility to the US government was expressed in the US itself, and certain fundamental failings in American policy were laid bare for all to see. Chief of these, perhaps, was Washington's inability to see international relations except in terms of East-West rivalry: "the friend of my enemy is my enemy" syndrome. But eventually this crisis too passed, and with the collapse of the Soviet Union the world, for a moment, seemed a much safer place. Communism evaporated, and old-style anti-Americanism no longer had a footing or a patron.

But the mere exertion of American power, the impact of American wealth (especially when diffused in the purchase of Middle Eastern oil) and of globalisation has brought about a completely new set of problems. Modern civilisation, as symbolised and driven by the United States, has fundamentally destabilised almost all traditional societies. I might add that a similar impact was felt in the modernisation that destabilised Europe and America in the 19th century. Revolutionary resentment has spread through the continents. Radical Islam is but one of its manifestations; and the resumption of mass migration after the hiatus of the mid-20th century means that the revolutionaries do not stay at home - they nurse their grievances in Europe and North America too.

They do not, and will not, see that while the West has no doubt all too often exacerbated its countries' problems, it did not create and cannot solve them. Renewal can only come from the peoples themselves. But the difficulties are so colossal that it is much easier to abandon the struggle and surrender to the delights of abusing the West. And so a new, inchoate anti-Americanism has emerged, devoid of a single focus, but all the more strongly felt. The destruction of the World Trade Centre is its symbol.

What, if anything, can the United States do about it? Like Pearl Harbor, 11 September was a wake-up call. But as the Bush administration has evidently discovered, consequent action can only be cautious and limited. The symptoms can be suppressed - Osama bin Laden and his organisation may yet be eliminated - but the causes will remain. Israel may at last be brought to heel, policy towards Iraq could be revised, but the underlying passions and dislocations will still be there.

If policymakers turn to history for help, they will only discover an old choice and an old solution. Pearl Harbor killed traditional American isolationism for good. It did not need the latest atrocity to teach the US that "peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none" - Jefferson's phrase - was no longer an adequate policy. Since 6 December 1941 the oceans no longer guaranteed American's physical safety.

But isolationism itself was only ever a response, a means to satisfy American nationalism. The instinct to seek a completely free hand in foreign affairs goes back to the very birth of the Republic, when at Paris in 1783 Benjamin Franklin and John Adams double- crossed the French in order to make a separate peace with Britain. This instinct - we call it unilateralism today - repeatedly showed itself in the 20th century. It explains why the US did nothing to avert the coming of the First World War; why it rejected the Treaty of Versailles; why it so frequently showed itself an overbearing ally to Britain during the Second World War; and why since 1995 the Republicans in Congress have so assiduously tried to undermine all treaties, institutions and international practices tending to restrict the operations of the United States.

Just as before, the Americans have discovered that unilateralism flies in the face of reality. The Bush administration is now assiduously building alliances and coalitions; Congress agrees to pay its dues to the United Nations; Pakistan is pardoned for becoming a nuclear power, Russia for its merciless war against the Chechens. Once more, as in the days of Woodrow Wilson and Dwight D Eisenhower, the United States is undertaking to lead the world rather than to ignore it. It is a phase as regularly recurring as its unilateralism.

And it is rather more likely to be successful in the conditions of the 21st century, in which nations are ever more entangled and the power of the US, though still enormous, is becoming relatively less overwhelming. The giant will have to discover the limits of his own strength.
Hugh Brogan is professor of history at the University of Essex and author of `The Penguin History of the United States'

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October 5, 2001, The Independent, Kidnap killings raise alarm in Philippines, by Oliver Teves in Manila

The murder of a businesswoman and her police bodyguard after their abduction earlier this week may signal a new wave of kidnappings for ransom in the Philippines.

Connie Wong and Dionisio Burca Jr, the police officer, were killed on Tuesday, less than 48 hours after they were seized, a very short period for a ransom kidnapping, said Teresita Ang See, who runs the watchdog organisation Citizens' Action Against Crime. "We did not expect that, after negotiating the first day, on the second day it was cut off," Ms Ang See said.

She said she had called for an urgent meeting of the government's National Anti-Crime Commission to discuss a resurgence of kidnappings.

Her group has listed 93 kidnappings so far this year, in which 202 people have been abducted, including three Americans and 17 Filipinos seized by the Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf from a tourist resort in May. More than half of the abductions occurred in Manila, and the victims were mostly wealthy Chinese-Filipinos.

The watchdog estimates that kidnap gangs have collected about 142 million pesos (£2m) in ransom payments. There was no immediate comment from the police.

Ms Wong and Mr Burca were seized in Quezon City, a suburb of Manila, early on Monday, by seven gunmen in two vehicles who blocked their car. The two and her driver, Archangel Barquilla, were taken to the group's hideout as the kidnappers sought a reported ransom of 50 million pesos, police said.

The negotiations apparently failed and the kidnappers shot Ms Wong and Mr Burca in the head late on Tuesday, leaving their bodies in the suburb of Valenzuela. Mr Barquilla, who was handcuffed to the dying officer, escaped death because a gun malfunctioned, police said.

Ms Wong's niece was kidnapped earlier this year but released within 24 hours when her family reportedly paid about 20 million pesos. Ms Wong worked as a collection agent for the family's foam-making company.

Ms Ang See said at least four people remained in the hands of kidnap gangs. (AP)

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October 6, 2001, The Independent, Headless skeleton may be that of US hostage, by Kathy Marks,

Skeletal remains believed to be those of an American hostage beheaded in June by Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines were discovered by soldiers yesterday.

The skeleton, from which a skull was missing, was thought to belong to Guillermo Sobero. He was in a group of three Americans and 16 Filipinos taken hostage by the separatist group Abu Sayyaf from a resort off Palawan in late May.

The rebels – who are suspected of having links with Osama bin Laden, the chief suspect in last month's terrorist attacks in America – had claimed responsibility for beheading Mr Sobero, but his body had not been found. The bones were found by the Philippine military in Kaulayan, a remote village on Basilan island, 560 miles south of Manila. The rebels are still holding 18 people hostage on Basilan, including an American couple.

Brigadier General Glicerio Sua said that the skeleton was discovered after its whereabouts were pinpointed by an Abu Sayyaf member recently captured by the military. He said that checks were being done to ascertain whether it did belong to Mr Sobero, but that the absence of a skull made the task more difficult.

"I don't know if we can confirm this to be that of Sobero because we have to subject it first to tests," he said. "The only way to check this is through DNA and we don't have that here." He said that for the moment they would have to rely on circumstantial evidence to try to establish the identity.

The United States has named Abu Sayyaf as one of the groups that support Mr bin Laden and his al-Qa'ida organisation, blamed for the 11 September suicide attacks.

The Philippines' National Security Adviser, Roilo Golez, said this week that 178 Abu Sayyaf members had been captured by Philippine troops since July, when the President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, ordered a crackdown.

Abu Sayyaf, which says it is fighting for an Islamic state in the south of the country, has made a series of kidnaps of foreigners, demanding ransoms for their release. It has an an estimated 1,200 members.

Government forces killed one of the group's members in a clash on Jolo island on Wednesday, said Colonel Fredesvindo Covarrubias, of the military's Southern Command. Two were taken captive on Basilan and five on Jolo.

The offensive was ordered by President Arroyo after the Americans were taken hostage in May. Mr Golez said that 90 rebels had surrendered and 80 had been killed since the crackdown began. After a series of releases, executions and new hostage-takings, Abu Sayyaf still holds 18 people on the island of Basilan.

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October 6, 2001, The Independent, War on Terrorism: The Suspects - Las Vegas Identified as the Hub for the Terrorists, Andrew Gumbel, 700+ words ...Jersey, Spain, Germany, Prague, the Philippines and, on the eve of the attacks, Portland...locations as diverse as Florida and the Philippines, suggesting the hijackers enjoyed women...than they absolutely had to. In the Philippines resort of Mabalacat, for example.
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October 11, 2001, The Independent, Air Strikes on Afghanistan: Muslim Reaction - Anti-US Protesters Try to Storm Jakarta Parliament ; Muslim Reaction, by Kathy Marks, 700+ words ...and violence is one that's been condemned in the past, and we condemn now, as a way to resolve any conflict." In the Philippines, a senior government official said the US was sending military officers to train and equip local troops in the civil war...
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October 11, 2001, The Independent, US Discloses Plans to Open New Fronts in War on Terror US to Open New Fronts in War on Terror, by Donald Macintyre, 700+ words ...overt and covert operations against Islamic extremists in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, all countries where the al-Qa...other links. A small team of US advisers will go to the Philippines this month to help the battle against the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas..

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October 11, 2001, The Independent, US general will go to Philippines as Bush fulfils his pledge for a war without limits, by Rupert Cornwell and Kim Sengupta, [Or: US Troops Sent into Philippines as Bush Fulfils His Pledge for a War without Limits ; Strategy]

War against terrorism: Strategy

In the days after the most devastating terrorist attack in history, President George Bush told the US people that the America's retaliation would be a war without beachheads, fixed battlefields and without limits. Now Washington is fleshing out that threat, signalling it plans to open new fronts – both covert and overt – well beyond the Middle East, to Asian countries like the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia where associates of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qa'ida network are operating.

The government of the Philippines confirmed on Wednesday that the US would send a small team of military specialists, headed by an army general, to Manila within the next few weeks. Its purpose will be to train and equip local troops fighting the insurgency of the Abu Sayyaf Islamic movement.

Currently hundreds of Abu Sayyaf guerrillas are fighting the Philippine army on the southern island of Basilan, where they are holding two American missionaries hostage and may have killed a third.

More to the point, the organisation, whose ostensible goal is to set up a separate Islamic nation within the Philippines, is believed to have organisational and financial links with al-Qa'ida, fed by Islamic charities and the proceeds of kidnapping foreigners.

Individual cases only support this thesis. Ramzi Yousef, convicted ringleader of the 1993 attempt to blow up the World Trade Centre in New York, plotted in Manila to blow up 11 jumbo jets en route to the US, while one of the men convicted of the 1998 US embassy bombing in Kenya was a student in the Philippines when he was recruited into the bin Laden organisation.

Earlier this month, President Gloria Arroyo herself acknowledged that there were "traces of a relationship" between Abu Sayyaf and the group which planned the 11 September attacks in New York and Washington. US intelligence experts describe Manila as a "major operational hub" of al-Qa'ida in its "holy war" against America.

For the public record, Filipino officials rule out any direct participation by US forces to root out the guerrillas, which would in any case be barred by the country's constitution. But as a host of precedents – from Vietnam and earlier – show, US trainers and advisers can very swiftly metamorphose into full-scale combatants by another name. The US moreover will be able to use its two former major installations in the Philippines, at Clark air base and Subic Bay, as bases for its operations.

The pattern is similar in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, where Islamic forces have been involved in some of the separatist violence which has long racked it. Though Indonesian Muslims are mostly moderate, there are extremist militias believed to be linked with Mr bin Laden's organisation.

Yesterday one such group, Darul Islam, owned up to having links with the al-Qa'ida network and the Taliban regime.

"Some factions in Darul Islam have had close contact with the al-Qa'ida movement and close contact with persons in Afghanistan," the group's spokesman, Al Chaidar, said. "They have, several times, invited Osama bin Laden to Indonesia. But Osama, himself, has not had a chance to go to Indonesia." A number of fringe Islamic groups have threatened to round up and expel Americans and other Westerners and have demanded that the country oppose the bombing of Afghanistan.

Though by the standards of street protest in Indonesia, the demonstrations against the US air strikes on Afghanistan have been on a small scale, they have been passionate and highly visible.

Yesterday, some 1,000 students gathered outside the parliament building in Jakarta to burn an effigy of President Bush, accusing America of terrorism and of conducting a war against all of Islam. The failure of the Indonesian government to denounce the raids has only incensed them further. Police fired tear gas to stop them storming the grounds of the parliament after they tried to break through police lines and push over the main gate.

Malaysia is also involved. Al-Qa'ida suspects have used Kuala Lumpur airport, and Khalid Al-Midhar, one of the hijackers of the American Airlines jet which was crashed into the Pentagon on 11 September and who was already on a US government watchlist of suspected terrorists, was videotaped at a terrorist meeting in the Malaysian capital last year.

The message from US officials is that all three of these countries – and by implication anywhere else where such al-Qa'ida cells may exist – could be the target of covert operations, carried out in collaboration with local security forces, or in exceptional cases by US special forces.

Mr Bush himself will discuss the problem with their three leaders next week at the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Shanghai.

But intelligence sources in Britain say the previously unappreciated danger of al-Qa'ida comes in the widely dispersed way it had set up bases internationally.

There are al-Qa'ida cells or associated terror groups in Algeria and Egypt, Chechnya, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, and in South America. Cells are also believed to be active in Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and possibly South Africa. The intelligence source said: "They appear to have a policy of sending recruits away for training [to Afghanistan] so they escape the attention of their domestic security services.

"Afterwards they are dispersed to unlikely places like the Philippines again, so that they are away from the microscope of interested law enforcement agencies.

"It's almost like an international conglomerate in the way it moves its members around," the source said. "There is a Pan-Islamic nature to the organisation – look at the multinational make-up of the 19 hijackers who attacked America. Recruits are told their loyalty lies not just to fellow Muslims in their country of origin but Muslims everywhere."

Al-Qa'ida members have also been spotted in northern Kosovo. There is unconfirmed evidence that Mr bin Laden's group had plotted to carry out an attack on the US embassy in Delhi.

The broadening of the counter-terrorist offensive should be no surprise. It was the main point of the weekend statement to the United Nations Security Council by John Negroponte, the US ambassador to the UN, in which he warned that Washington reserved the right to strike at "other organisations" and "other states" in its campaign to eliminate international terrorism.

This was initially taken as a specific reference to Iraq, whose intelligence services have been linked with Mohamed Atta, one of the ringleaders of the 11 September attacks, and whose UN ambassador shortly afterwards received a separate blunt warning from Mr Negroponte not to take advantage of attacks against Afghanistan to stir up trouble of its own. In fact it goes much further, US officials say.

Mr Negroponte himself was merely repeating what President Bush has been saying for weeks. Yesterday, Colin Powell, the Secretary of State, delivered the same message. "We are only at the beginning of a long campaign," General Powell said. "This war will never really stop in any of its phases – military, diplomatic and financial."

He could not have put it more plainly. Even if the campaign in Afghanistan is totally successful, and Osama bin Laden, his training camps and network, and the Taliban regime are eliminated, it will be only a beginning.

Only then will the substance of Mr Bush's ultimatum to all countries to choose between the terrorists and the US be revealed. But even as the plumes of smoke still hang in the air over Kabul and Kandahar, the realisation is sinking in. The US is in it for the long haul, across the global board.

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October 13, 2001, The Independent, AIR STRIKES ON AFGHANISTAN: Global Reaction - Protesters Take to Streets across the Islamic World, by Kathy Marks, 700+ words

...outlet, but no one was hurt. An unexploded device was found outside the office of an Australian insurance company. In the Philippines, protesters chanted "Death to Americans", as the US embassy in Manila confirmed Guillermo Sobero, an American tourist..
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October 16, 2001, The Independent, Philippine protesters burn US and British flags in support of Bin Laden,

Associated Press

Several hundred Muslims burned US. and British flags to protest the bombing of Afghanistan, and some expressed readiness to fight for al–Qaida chief Osama bin Laden.

Some Muslim traders closed shops and stores in support of the anti–U.S. protest in the southern city of Iligan.

Leftist and Muslim groups have staged a series of noisy but peaceful protests in Manila and a few cities in the southern region of Mindanao, home to the country's Muslim minority. The predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines is fighting Muslim extremists in the south.

"I will go to Afghanistan if I'm needed. I will leave my wife and five children to Allah who will find food for them," said Haron Ali. The 35–year–old shoemaker signed a list of Muslims in Mindanao volunteering to fight to defend bin Laden, the wealthy Saudi exile accused of masterminding the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

One placard read, "Jihad (holy war) is the answer to US terrorism."

Soldiers and riot police stood by, some behind an armored car.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has said she fully supports the U.S.–led campaign on terrorism and has allowed U.S. aircraft to use Philippine ports and air space.
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October 13, 2001, The Independent, Philippines opens ‘truth hotlines', 182 words
THE PHILIPPINE President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, has ordered 24- hour "truth hotlines" to be set up to fight gossip about terror attacks sent via e-mail or text messages. People can call the hotlines to check whether rumours about biological attacks, for example, are true. END

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October 17, 2001, The Independent, Imelda Marcos charged over 'secret accounts', by Kathy Marks in Sydney

Imelda Marcos, the flamboyant former first lady of the Philippines, declared herself the victim of a witch-hunt yesterday after a court ordered her to be arrested on charges of laundering some £155m of illegally gained wealth through Swiss bank accounts.

Mrs Marcos, 72, widow of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, made a brief appearance before the anti-corruption court after arriving in a black chauffeur-driven limousine, accompanied by bodyguards.

"Once again, this is pure and simple harassment," she said, raising ink-smudged fingers for the benefit of photographers after being fingerprinted. "It is so inhuman. It's a persecution of 16 years. So relentless, so cruel."

The four charges, each of which carries a penalty of 10 to 17 years in prison, form part of a long-running case alleging that she and her husband plundered the nation's economy during his 18 years in power. Victims of human rights abuses under the Marcos regime have also made claims against the Marcos family's assets.

Mrs Marcos, whose name became a byword for extravagance and ostentation, surrendered herself to the court in a royal blue trouser suit and large sapphire ear-rings bordered with diamond and ruby studs.

She was given bail after being charged with keeping money illegally amassed by her and her husband in "secret accounts" in the name of various foundations in Switzerland. She has denied that the wealth was illicitly accumulated, claiming that Mr Marcos was an affluent man before he became president in 1968.

Famously, more than 1,200 pairs of shoes belonging to Mrs Marcos were found when the couple fled the presidential palace in Manila after being toppled by a "people power" revolution in 1986. They took refuge in Hawaii, where Mr Marcos died three years later.

Mrs Marcos, a former beauty queen from humble roots, has refused to bury her husband's chemically preserved corpse, keeping it in a glass casket in the hope that a future government will allow him to be interred in Manila.

More than 100 criminal and civil lawsuits have been filed against the Marcoses and their associates since the mid-1980s. She was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to 12 years in jail in 1993, but the conviction was overturned five years later by the Supreme Court.

At the height of her husband's power, she was notorious for her shopping trips to the world's most expensive boutiques, her glitzy parties and her lavish beautification projects in a country of extreme poverty.
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October 18, 2001, The Independent, Gunmen abduct Italian missionary, 176 words
GUNMEN ABDUCTED an Italian missionary from a remote town in the war- torn southern Philippines yesterday. Police said an unidentified group seized Father Giuseppi Piarantoni, who is in his mid-40s, in the town of Dimataling shortly before 7pm. END
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October 19, 2001, The Independent, WAR ON TERRORISM: Health - Psychological Illness May Be Worst Effect of Bioterrorism, by Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor, 700+ words ...sent to hospital after fumes were detected. The fumes were from drying paint. Fear has spread around the world. In the Philippines, 1,000 students in Manila overwhelmed local clinics complaining of flu- like symptoms after rumours spread via mobile..
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October 23, 2001, The Independent, War on Terrorism: 55 Brigade - Bin Laden's Foreign Legion the Main Target for US and Friendly Forces, by Kim Sengupta, 677 words ...Yemeni, Algerian, Somali, Sudanese, Pakistani, Chechen, Uigur Chinese and some from the Balkans, Indonesia and the Philippines. Some were mujahedin in the war against the Russians, others joined the ranks more recently and have served in a variety..
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November 2, 2001, The Independent, Malaysian premier's snub to gay minister, by Marie Woolf, Chief Political Correspondent

The Foreign Secretary became embroiled in a spat yesterday with Malaysia's Prime Minister, who said he would throw out any homosexual British minister visiting the country with his partner.

The remark was believed to refer to Ben Bradshaw, the minister responsible for relations with Malaysia.

Dr Mahathir Mohamed said homosexuality was unacceptable in Malaysia, where Islam is the predominant religion. He said homosexuals were not fit to serve in the Malaysian government, and should not bring their "boyfriends" into the country. "The British people accept homosexual ministers but if they ever come here bringing their boyfriend along, we will throw them out," he said on Radio 4's Today programme.

Jack Straw said that he "strongly believes that people's private lives are private".

The comment raised the question of whether Mr Bradshaw will be able to visit the country, but the Foreign Office said ministers would not travel with their partners on official business. A Malaysian diplomatic source said that if Mr Bradshaw visited the country, even without his partner, there was "no way" the Prime Minister would meet him.

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November 12, 2001, The Independent, Indonesian rebel chief abducted and killed, by Lely T Djuhari in Jakarta,

The leader of the main independence movement in Indonesia's Irian Jaya province has been kidnapped and killed, according to police. Theys Eluay's widow blamed the security forces. Riots erupted as news of his death spread.

Villagers found Mr Eluay dead in his wrecked car in a ravine about 18 miles east of the provincial capital, Jayapura. Police said his assailants had apparently tried to make his death look accidental by pushing the car off a remote stretch of road.Lieutenant-Cololonel Daud Sihombing, Jayapura's police chief, said: "The autopsy has not been completed yet, but we have suspicions that he was strangled with rope." The police had no suspects and the motive was unclear.

Mr Eluay died hours after dining with some local Indonesian military officers. He had been free on bail while facing trial on subversion charges that carried a prison term of up to 20 years.

Independence supporters set fire to a hotel, a market and a bank near Jayapura's airport. Others blocked roads with burning tyres and threw rocks at police, who responded with warning shots. There were no reports of injuries and police dispersed the crowds at dusk.
Mr Eluay's widow, Yaneke, said she believed Indonesia's security forces were behind her husband's death. Senior officers in Indonesia's military, which has long been accused of human rights abuses, refused to comment.

Relatives of Mr Eluay said he was being driven back from Jayapura to his house in nearby Sentani after the dinner. The driver, Aristoteles Masoka, called Mr Eluay's wife on a mobile telephone to say they had been ambushed and abducted.

Mr Masoka's father, Yonas Masoka, said: "My son called with his mobile phone but in mid-conversation the connection was broken." The driver's body was not in the wrecked car, police said.

Mr Eluay, 64, was the head of the separatist Papuan Presidium Council and was leading a campaign for an independence referendum in Irian Jaya, which covers the western half of New Guinea island and is home to huge mineral and petroleum resources. Anti-Indonesian protests and separatist fighting have racked Irian Jaya for years.

Thousands have been killed in troubled regions in Indonesia as the country struggles with a transition to democracy and a crippling economic crisis, after three decades of dictatorship under the former president Suharto, who was driven from power in 1998.
Local and foreign rights activists had criticised Mr Eluay's prosecution and accused Indonesia of muzzling free speech in Irian Jaya, about 2,500 miles east of Jakarta.

But Mr Eluay also had foes within his movement. Many activists questioned his tactics and were angered by his attempts to maintain dialogue with some Indonesian officials.

The separatist movement in Irian Jaya is a loose coalition that had been making little headway toward self-rule, and Mr Eluay's recent ill-health had loosened his grip on leadership. Indonesia annexed the former Dutch colony in 1969 after a UN-sanctioned vote for integration by about 1,000 tribal leaders.

Mr Eluay, a traditional tribal elder and politician, began calling for independence when he failed to win re-election to a local pro-Indonesian legislative council in the 1980s. He later declared himself leader of West Papua, the name separatists give to the state they want to establish.

Irian Jaya's native Papuans, who are poorer than immigrants from elsewhere in Indonesia, are mostly Christian, while Indonesia as a whole is mostly Muslim. (AP)

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November 20, 2001, The Independent, Philippines peace deal shattered as 55 die in Muslim uprising, by James Palmer,

Hundreds of former Muslim rebels took up arms in the southern Philippines on Monday, shattering a five-year-old peace deal in a battle that left 55 people dead.

Guerrillas of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) launched a pre-dawn raid on an army camp on the island of Jolo, killing four soldiers and wounding 27 others in a rain of mortar shells, the army said. Lieutenant-General Roy Cimatu, the regional army commander, said the situation was under control by noon after a counter-attack with air force bombers and helicopter gunships killed 51 rebels and wounded 13.

The shelling of the army's 104th Infantry Brigade headquarters near the airport in Jolo town raises a challenge to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who is visiting the United States to appeal for military aid in fighting other groups of Islamic separatists.

Brigadier-General Adilberto Adan, a military spokesman, said: "It's a deliberate plan to show to the government that the MNLF still has teeth." The now-factionalised MNLF was once the biggest Muslim group fighting for an Islamic state in the south of the largely Catholic country until it signed a peace deal with Manila in 1996, formally ending more than 30 years of fighting that killed more than 120,000 people.

Sporadic skirmishes have broken out but none so fierce as yesterday's raid, which was launched by armed followers of Nur Misuari – who leads a splinter group of the MNLF – a week before Muslims in the country's south were to hold elections. Mr Misuari became governor of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao under the peace accord, signed by him as head of the MNLF. He was deposed as MNLF leader this year, and says the elections scheduled for 26 November are a violation of the peace agreement.

Yesterday's attack poses a severe security problem for the Arroyo government as it tries to win back investor confidence shaken by tourist kidnappings and political turmoil.

Rigoberto Tiglao, a presidential spokesman, said: "This could be a move to embarrass the president while she is in the United States, to project an image that she's not in control or the armed forces are not in control." The government is holding separate talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which broke away from the MNLF in the 1980s.

The raids follow recent attacks by Marxist New People's Army rebels on 10 Philippine communication transmission centres in which 18 soldiers were killed.

Meanwhile, government forces have launched a concerted offensive against the Muslim extremist Abu Sayyaf group, which is now holding an American couple and a Filipino nurse in the jungle of Basilan island, north of Jolo.

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November 27, 2001, AP / The Independent, US missionary couple tells of hostage ordeal, by Jim Gomez, in Manila

A pair of American missionaries, held hostage by Muslim extremists for six months, told of their continuing ordeal on a videotape yesterday, describing brushes with illness, gunfire and the constant spectre of death.

The brief footage, showing Gracia and Martin Burnham surrounded by Abu Sayyaf guerrillas with heavy weaponry, was the first video shown of the Wichita, Kansas, couple since they were abducted on 27 May while celebrating their wedding anniversary at a tourist resort in the Phillipines.

More than 7,000 Filipino soldiers, backed by US equipment and training, have been deployed on the southern island of Basilan to rescue the Americans and destroy the guerrillas. The couple, who are in their 40s, said they have developed mouth sores from lack of nutrients, thriving on scarce supplies of cassava and bananas. They displayed a jar of Skippy peanut butter sent by friends. Mr Burnham's heavy red beard could not conceal his considerable weight loss.

They were interviewed by freelance journalist Arlyn de la Cruz while a crew from the local cable television channel Net 25 filmed them.
The Burnhams were among three Americans and scores of Filipinos seized by the rebels in a kidnapping spree that began in May. Only the Burnhams and a Filipino nurse remain in rebel hands.

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December 10, 2001, The Independent, Malaysia to flog 'illegals' in migration crackdown, by Kathy Marks in Sydney

All foreigners who enter Malaysia without valid documents are to be flogged as part of a government crackdown on illegal immigrants.
The punishment is to be meted out to first-time offenders under changes to the Immigration Act, which will go before parliament in March. At present, only second-time offenders are liable to be whipped.

Malaysia, one of the richest countries in the region, is a popular destination for illegal immigrants from poorer nations such as Indonesia, the Philippines and Bangladesh.Many take low-paid construction jobs or work in plantations.

More than 500,000 illegal workers are believed to be in Malaysia, which has a population of 23 million, and another 9,000 – mainly from the Philippines and Indonesia – are in detention centres awaiting deportation.

The authorities have stepped up a campaign against unauthorised visitors, and yesterday sent home 2,000 Indonesians in an Indonesian naval ship from the southern Malaysian state of Johor.

The government has said it aims to send back up to 300,000 foreign workers to make jobs available for Malaysians affected by an economic slowdown. Last month, 2,500 Indonesian workers were deported. Another 1,600 were sent home last Wednesday after a riot and a fire destroyed a detention camp.

Mohd Jamal Kamdi, the director general of the Immigration Department, said the changes to the legislation had already been approved by the government.

The authorities said the whippings would be with a rattan cane, although the number of lashes to be administered to first-time offenders has not been specified. Repeat offenders can be given up to six lashes, as well as a jail sentence and a fine, if they are convicted of working or staying in Malaysia illegally.
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March 8, 2002, The Independent, Suharto's son is charged in plot to murder judge,

Tommy Suharto, the youngest son of the former Indonesian dictator, was charged yesterday with plotting the assassination of a judge, the most serious allegation yet to be brought against the family which dominated the country for three decades.

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April 11, 2002, The Independent, Senators launch inquiry into army torture claims, by Jim Gomez, in Manila,

Three Philippine senators launched an investigation yesterday into allegations of torture and human rights abuses during a military offensive against Muslim extremists.

Residents described illegal arrests and killings by soldiers during a campaign against Abu Sayyaf rebels and supporters on the island of Basilan last year.

Lieutenant-General Roy Cimatu, leading the offensive, said his troops were under strict orders to uphold human rights and the military was looking into the complaints.

No accusations have been made against US troops who arrived in January for a training exercise aimed at helping local troops wipe out the rebels, who are linked to al-Qa'ida. A public hearing before the Senate committee on justice and human rights was told Philippine marines tortured and killed a suspected rebel supporter, Elnie Angulo. His mother, Anissa, said: "I saw my son half-buried in the ground; he was deformed, almost unrecognisable."

Victims of Abu Sayyaf attended the hearing. Erlinda Tarroza, whose brother was beheaded by rebels in 1998, asked reporters: "Why are they blaming the military? If they leave, what will happen to us?"

Senator Francis Pangilinan, the committee chairman, said he would recommend prosecution of military officers if the allegations were proved. (AP)

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April 22, 2002, The Independent, Philippines bomb blasts leave at least 14 dead, by Paul Alexander in Manila

Three explosions have ripped through one of the largest cities in the southern Philippines, killing at least 14 people and injuring 45.
An hour earlier a radio station caller, claiming to be from the Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf, had warned of the blasts.

One bomb exploded outside a busy department store in the city of General Santos, killing at least 14 people, including four children. Within 40 minutes, others went off near a radio station and a bus terminal in the largely Christian city of 800,000 people in the Mindanao region, where Islamic fundamentalists have been fighting for an independent homeland.

The attack was reminiscent of a series of bombings in the capital, Manila, 16 months ago that killed 22 people. An Indonesian man who has claimed to have planned those attacks pleaded guilty to possessing explosives in General Santos on Thursday.

Police said it was too early to accuse any specific group of carrying out the attacks. (AP)

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April 29, 2002, The Independent, Mob kills 12 Christians in Indonesia, by James Palmer,

A group of Muslim militants armed with swords and guns and throwing homemade bombs killed at least 12 Christians in Indonesia's troubled Moluccas region yesterday.

The mob descended on Soya village, a Christian neighbourhood of Ambon city, before dawn, setting fire to homes as people slept. The violence then spread to the city centre where a bomb exploded.

It was the latest outbreak of violence in several days of fresh trouble in Ambon, shattering a deal brokered in February that sought to end three years of conflict in which 6,000 people have died. The attacks came after a Christian separatist group marked the 52nd anniversary of a failed independence bid. Muslim crowds took to the streets to protest.

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May 24, 2002, The Independent, Philippines guerrilla leader is arrested, by Jim Gomez AP in Zamboanga,

A Muslim guerrilla leader suspected of masterminding a campaign of deadly bombings in the Philippines has been captured by police.
Nearly 50 officers and military intelligence agents arrested Noor Mohammad Umog, who allegedly heads a special operations unit of Abu Sayyaf, an extremist group that has been linked to al-Qa'ida.

Superintendent Bartolome Baluyot said Mr Umog was seized as he left a restaurant in the southern city of Cotabato on Wednesday. Police are preparing to charge him with multiple murders for three bomb attacks that killed 15 people and wounded nearly 100 outside a shopping mall in the southern port city of General Santos on 21 April.

At the time of his capture he also had 50 arrest warrants out against him for kidnappings in southern Jolo and Basilan, the island base of Abu Sayyaf.

Supt Bartolome said: "This guy is involved in bombings, many kidnappings, extortion, and his arrest is a major blow to his group." Police believe Mr Umog was the person who called a local radio station to claim responsibility for the General Santos bombings on behalf of Al Harakatul Islamiya, Abu Sayyaf's formal name.

Two suspects arrested a day after the bombings claimed that more attacks were planned around the country to destabilise the government.

Abu Sayyaf is also using the threat of more bombings to extort money from business establishments, according to the police.
Mr Umog, a former teacher from Basilan, was identified by five suspected guerrillas who said hewas the right-hand man of Khadafy Janjalani, the leader of the rebels who have been holding the American missionaries Gracia and Martin Burnham for nearly a year in Basilan's jungles.

The US military is providing training and weapons to Philippines troops to destroy rebel strongholds in Basilan, a predominantly Muslim province of more than 300,000 people, and to help rescue the Burnhams, kidnapped from an island resort on 27 May last year.

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June 8, 2002, The Independent, American dies in bungled attempt to rescue hostages held in Philippines, by Kathy Marks in Sydney

An American missionary held hostage in the Philippines for more than a year was killed yesterday during a bungled rescue attempt by troops trained by the US military.

Martin Burnham, 42, and another hostage, Ediborah Yap, a Filipina nurse, died of gunshot wounds, inflicted either by Filipino troops or Abu Sayaff rebels. Mr Burnham's wife, Gracia, was shot in the leg but freed when the rescue mission turned into a gunfight in dense jungle.

Four rebels died and seven soldiers were injured when hundreds of commandos equipped with night vision equipment launched the ambush near the town of Siraway, on the main southern island of Mindanao. Mrs Burnham, 43, received surgery in a military hospital in the city of Zamboanga after a bullet passed through her thigh, and was said to be out of danger.

The Burnhams, from Kansas, were kidnapped in May last year by Abu Sayaff guerrillas, who later beheaded a Californian hostage, Guillermo Sobero. Ms Yap was seized a few days later.

The couple were kidnapped the day after arriving at a beach resort off the island of Palawan to celebrate their 18th wedding anniversary.
Mrs Burnham told doctors: "I was so happy when I got out of the jungle." She said of her husband: "That is God's liking. That is probably his destiny."

American helicopters helped to remove the wounded yesterday. The US military has been training Filipino troops because Abu Sayaff – which is fighting for a separate Muslim state in the south – has links with Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'ida terrorist network.

President Gloria Arroyoa offered condolences to the Burnham and Yap families. "This has been a long and painful trial for them, for our government, for our country," she said.

The operation was launched after military intelligence indicated that the guerrillas had slipped off Basilan, a nearby island where they were holding the Burnhams.

Abu Sayaff kidnapped 18 other people when they abducted the couple, and subsequently seized dozens of others. The Burnhams and Ms Yap were the last remaining captives. The Philippine military now plans to pour reinforcements into the area.

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June 22, 2002, The Independent, Philippine rebel chief 'shot dead', by Andrew Buncombe, in Washington,

A leader of a rebel group that earlier this month killed two American hostages and has been linked to al-Qa'ida is believed to have been killed in a clash with Philippine troops.

The country's President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, said navy personnel were searching for the body of a man known as Abu Sabaya in waters off the southern island of Mindanao.

Abu Sabaya, the most visible of the commanders of the Abu Sayyaf group, was shot during a firefight with elite Philippine troops, who have recently been training with US forces as part of President George Bush's efforts to expand his "war on terror".

Ms Arroyo said a soldier had reported that he had shot Abu Sabaya in the back and saw his body sink. "The captured Abu Sayyaf members confirmed that one of those who jumped into the sea was Abu Sabaya, who was wearing a black sweatshirt," she said. "The [military] team also confirmed shooting the man in the black sweatshirt."

The military said it had been close to tracking down Abu Sabaya since two of the group's most recent hostages – Martin Burnham, an American, and Ediborah Yap, a Filipina – were killed with three rebels during a clash on 7 June. Mr Burnham's wife, Gracia, was rescued injured and survived. Washington recently offered a $5m (£3.3m) bounty for Abu Sabaya's capture.

Major Richard Sater, a spokesman for US forces conducting counter-terrorism training exercises in the Philippines, said: "We did get word from the [Philippines military] that Abu Sabaya was one of those killed in the encounter. We are encouraged. It is a step forward in the war against terrorism."

Ms Arroyo congratulated her forces. "Terrorists will be hunted down relentlessly wherever they are. They will be given no room to manoeuvre, to hide, or to rest. We will not stop until they are all accounted for." She said the clash occurred at about 4.30am local time yesterday, about half a mile offshore in Zamboanga del Norte province, where the hostages were killed.

Major Sater said US forces had provided support during the clash but were not directly involved in the fighting. "We're here to advise and assist," he said. Asked if Americans had been near by, Major Sater said: "Yes, but I can't say how near."

Major General Ernesto Carolina, the southern military commander for the Philippines, said his soldiers had observed a boat "surreptitiously" sailing from a coastal village and had followed it for about 45 minutes. The soldiers, using night-vision goggles, decided to intercept it when they saw seven armed men on board. As they approached, the soldiers came under fire and shot back, hitting Abu Sabaya and two others who fell overboard. The soldiers used their speed boat to ram the other vessel, at which point the remaining rebel fighters surrendered.

The soldier who shot Abu Sabaya "positively, categorically said he was sure that he hit Sabaya in the back and he saw his body sink in the water," General Carolina said.

Troops said earlier that they found Abu Sabaya's sunglasses and backpack at the site of the 7 June killings in the jungle.

The Philippines' Defence Secretary, Angelo Reyes, said yesterday that an agreement had been reached to allow American military advisers to be allowed closer to the front lines fighting the rebels. The deal means they can go beyond battalion headquarters, where they had been confined, to join smaller company units.

Ms Arroyo said earlier yesterday that the US mission, on Basilan island, would end as scheduled on 31 July, despite calls from many Basilan residents for them to stay.
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June 29, 2002, AP / The Independent, Filipino commandos clash with Abu Sayyaf rebels, by Oliver Teves in Manila,

A battle was raging between soldiers and Abu Sayyaf rebels in the southern Philippines, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said yesterday.

She prefaced a policy speech on utility reform by announcing that troops were pursuing the group's two main leaders and had already overrun four camps of Abu Sayyaf, which has been linked to al-Qa'ida. "We are now having a major battle in Sulu, right in the camp where the Abu Sayyaf was born," she said.

A military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the fighting was a continuation from a clash on Thursday between 200 Philippine army commandos and about 150 Abu Sayyaf guerrillas tracked by US surveillance planes on the southern island of Jolo.

An army officer was killed and six others wounded in the 30-minute battle with rebels believed to be led by Khaddafy Janjalani, who is on a list of Philippine terrorists wanted by the United States.

More troops were deployed yesterday. The area is "thickly vegetated" and offers cover and "a lot of high ground and exit points" where rebels can escape, the source said.

The Southern Philippine commander, Major-General Ernesto Carolina, said there were simultaneous operations against rebels in three areas to stop them from linking up.

Abu Sayyaf has been a persistent thorn in the side of the government with kidnappings for ransom, murder and other crimes. Their most recent abduction involved 102 hostages.

About 1,000 US special forces, pilots and support staff are on a six-month mission to train and advise Filipino troops fighting Abu Sayyaf. An official said American satellites were used in the offensive.

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August 22, 2002, AP / The Independent, Muslim extremists behead Jehovah's Witnesses

Muslim extremists beheaded two of six Jehovah's Witnesses they kidnapped in the southern Philippines and dumped their heads on market stalls.

Heads of the two male hostages were found in Jolo town, on the island of Jolo. One head was left in a cloth bag and another in a plastic bag on food stands in the town's main market.

Notes attached to the heads denounced the victims as "infidels" and called for "jihad" or Islamic holy war.

The two men, and four women, were abducted on Tuesday near Jolo town, in a stronghold of the fanatical Abu Sayyaf group that survived a US-backed military campaign to wipe it out.

The hostages had been selling Avon cosmetics, herbal teas and medical supplies on the predominantly Muslim island, police said.
Some Philippine newspapers described them as also being "preachers" who had been spreading their religion in the Patikul area, considered extremely dangerous for Christians.

For the second consecutive night, the army overnight shelled suspected hide-outs of the Abu Sayyaf, known for mass kidnappings of Filipinos and others, including Americans and Europeans. Some have been beheaded.

Tuesday's kidnappings were the first by the group since the United States began supporting a Philippines military campaign to eradicate the group in February.

A six-month US military mission in the area ended last month. At that time American and Filipino officials boasted that the Abu Sayyaf had been decimated.

"Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water, the sharks called Abu Sayyaf rear their ugly heads again," said the Manila Standard newspaper.

Military spokesman Colonel Jose Mendoza denied that the kidnapping shows the Abu Sayyaf still has much power. "What we have now in Jolo are splinter groups that are saying they are still around," he said. "They staged this abduction because they are feeling the pressure."
Officials said the two dead were 21-year-old Lemuel Bantolo, aged 21, and Leonel Mantic.

Mr Mantic's 23-year-old widow, Emily, was feared to be one of the surviving captives along with Cleofe Bantolo, 46, Flora Bantolo, 40, and Nori Bendijo, 41.

Police and military officers say the kidnappings were led by Muin Maulod Sahiron, a nephew of Radullan Sahiron who heads the Abu Sayyaf group in Patikul.

Police said two men with pistols stopped a jeep carrying the Jehovah's Witnesses and forced them out Tuesday. The driver was left behind and alerted authorities. Two other people in the vehicle, who were Muslim, were not taken.

Police also found Avon products and herbal teas in the jeep.

A spokesman at the Avon Product, Inc.'s New York headquarters, Victor Beaudet, said the abductees were not employees or official Avon representatives.

The Abu Sayyaf has often kidnapped for ransom but more frequently has abducted poor Filipinos, mostly Christians, to serve for weeks or months as slave labour. Kidnapped women are sometimes forced to marry guerrillas.

For six months from February, about 1,200 US troops trained and gave supplies and intelligence to Philippine troops hunting the Abu Sayyaf.

Last year, Abu Sayyaf rebels raided a tourist resort and abducted three Americans and 17 Filipinos. The gang beheaded American Guillermo Sobero and several Filipino hostages.

That kidnapping saga ended on 7 June this year when U.S.-trained and backed Philippine soldiers tracked down the rebels.
They rescued American missionary Gracia Burnham, but her husband Martin Burnham and Filipino nurse Ediborah Yap were killed in the bloody jungle raid.

A Filipino man, Roland Ullah, is still being held from another Abu Sayyaf mass kidnapping at a tourist resort in Malaysia two years ago.

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August 22, 2002, The Independent, Filipino rebels kidnap Avon sales team, by Kathy Marks in Sydney,

Eight people selling Avon cosmetics door-to-door on the southern Philippines island of Jolo, a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, have become the rebels' latest victims.

The five women and three men, all Filipinos, were kidnapped on Tuesday while travelling on a minibus through the village of Darayan, on the outskirts of Patikul town.

Gunmen stopped the vehicle and herded the sales representatives into a forest, a military spokesman said. Avon cosmetics were found scattered at the scene. Two of the men were released yesterday, but the rest of the group were still being held.

Abu Sayyaf, a separatist Muslim organisation that has been linked to al-Qa'ida, has seized many host-ages but these are the first since American troops joined a crackdown six months ago.

The purpose of the kidnap was not clear. Abu Sayyaf often demands ransoms, but has also abducted poor Filipinos to serve as slave labour. Some have been released, but more than a dozen have been killed in the past year.

Esmon Suhuri, vice-mayor of Patikul, said he had warned the salespeople to avoid the area. The Philippine army was searching for the hostages yesterday and shelling suspected rebel hideouts
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August 23, 2002, The Independent, Jehovah's Witnesses beheaded by Filipino rebels, by Kathy Marks,

JUST WEEKS after the American military boasted that it had crippled the Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf, the Filipino rebels left a grisly calling card yesterday: the heads of two Jehovah's Witnesses kidnapped two days earlier.

The two men were among six Filipinos abducted while travelling in a Jeep near the town of Patikul, on the troubled southern island of Jolo on Tuesday. Their heads were dumped with notes denouncing them as infidels. Guerrillas were still holding four hostages, all women.

The group had been selling Avon cosmetics and herbal teas door to door. Relatives denied they had been trying to proselytise on the predominantly Muslim island, although officials said they were carrying Bibles and Christian leaflets.

The murders and kidnappings are a serious blow to the Manila government and to the US, which sent 1,000 troops to the southern Philippines to train local security forces in counter-terrorism.

Most of the Americans left the southern island of Basilan last month, with US Navy Admiral Thomas Fargo, chief of the US Pacific Command, declaring that the crackdown had left Abu Sayyaf "in disarray and on the run". A different faction of the group, which has been linked to the al- Qa'ida terrorism network, operates on Jolo.

The Philippines army poured hundreds of troops into the Patikul area yesterday to search for the surviving hostages, who include Emily Mantic, whose husband Leonel was beheaded. The other victim was named as 21-year- old Lemuel Montulo. The military reinforcements included elite fighters trained by the Americans. For the second consecutive night, the army shelled suspected hideouts of Abu Sayyaf, which has committed mass kidnappings of Filipinos, as well as Americans and Europeans, in the past.

The group, which has frequently demanded ransoms, beheaded an American hostage, Guillermo Sobero, last year. An American missionary, Martin Burnham, was killed during a rescue raid in June.

The latest hostages were captured when two rebels armed with pistols stopped the Jehovah's Witnesses' Jeep and herded them into a forest. It was originally reported that eight people were abducted, but the other two occupants of the vehicle, both Muslims, were not abducted.

One kidnapper was identified by the driver as Muin Maulod Sahiron, a one-armed rebel regarded by some as a Robin Hood figure, who travels by horse and carries an Uzi submachine gun. Brigadier- General Romeo Tolentino, army commander on Jolo, said one head was found by residents at a fruit stall in a public market and the other on a dirt road leading to military headquarters in southern Jolo.

The attached notes called for an Islamic holy war, and one warned: "Those who do not believe in Allah will suffer the same fate." The abductions were the first by Abu Sayyaf since US forces arrived in the Philippines six months ago as part of the international "war on terror".

A military spokesman, Colonel Jose Mendoza, denied the guerrillas had proved they were still a force to be reckoned with. "What we have now in Jolo are splinter groups that are saying they are still around," he said. "They staged this abduction because they are feeling the pressure."

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Leading Article: The Bali Bomb Proves the Need for a War on Terror, Not a War on Iraq
The Independent (London, England); October 15, 2002; 700+ words ...international effort to combat terrorism - it has forces deployed in anti- terrorism operations in places as far apart as the Philippines, Georgia and Kuwait - but the thrust of its military and propaganda effort is now Iraq. The deadly terrorist attack in...



GLOBAL TERRORISM: TERRORIST ATTACKS - Philippines Blasts Raise Fear of Bloody Campaign
The Independent (London, England); October 18, 2002; Usborne, David; 700+ words ...crowded shopping centre in the southern Philippines, killing six people. Government officials...spokesman told reporters in Manila, the Philippines' capital. A pair of explosions tore...President George Bush to assist the Philippines military in countering the rebels..


It Is Not Hate That Drives Them to Kill Us
The Independent (London, England); October 18, 2002; Hamilton, Adrian; 700+ words ...blowing up of the tanker in the Gulf, the shooting of an American soldier in Kuwait or the bomb in the shopping mall in thePhilippines yesterday that demands novel interpretation or grand new visions of global clashes. The destruction of civilians as a means...


Bus bomb in Manila leaves three dead PHILIPPINES
The Independent (London, England); October 19, 2002; Andrew Gumbel in Sydney; 319 words THREE PEOPLE were killed and at least 30 injured yesterday when a bomb exploded on a bus in the Philippine capital, Manila. The timing raised suspicions that the perpetrators may have been Muslim radicals. The blast occurred a day after suspected Islamic militants bombed a bazaar in the southern


Britons `at risk' in South-east Asia SECURITY
The Independent (London, England); October 19, 2002; Kim Sengupta; 415 words ...that a network of terrorists is operating in Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore, as well as Indonesia, and the...targets have been uncovered in Singapore, Malaysia and thePhilippines, and a group of 13 suspects were arrested in Singapore.


BALI BOMBING: Spain Claims Its Warning over Indonesian Terror Cell Went Unheeded
The Independent (London, England); October 21, 2002; Kathy Marks and Elizabeth Nash; 686 words ...nationality, got to know Parlin in Madrid's mosque. Spanish police had been tapping Abu Dahdah's phone since 1995. In the Philippines, a bomb at an open-air Christian shrine in the southern city of Zamboanga killed a Filipino marine corporal and injured...


CAMPAIGN AGAINST TERROR: INDONESIA: Bali Police Have Sketches of Three Bomb Suspects
The Independent (London, England); October 24, 2002; Marks, Kathy; 700+ words ...replied: "Well, some people are saying it was the Americans, so why can't I say it was al- Qa'ida?" w Police in the Philippinesparaded five men before the press yesterday, saying they were members of the Muslim rebel group Abu Sayyaf, suspected of...


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October 25, 2002, The Independent, America Must Understand Why the Third World Still Distrusts Its Power, by Kaizer Nyatsumba, 700+ words

...has repeatedly spoken the language of democracy at home while warmly embracing - and working with - tyrants abroad. In the Philippines and in Haiti, the US supported the dictators Ferdinand Marcos and Jean-Claude Duvalier respectively, against local citizens..
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October 28, 2002, The Independent, Attack on Afghanistan: IoS Investigation - Bin Laden Web Link Registered in Suffolk ; American and British Intelligence Have Uncovered an Internet Trail from the UK to Afghan Terror Cells, by Chris Blackhurst, 700+ words

...registered to the same Woodbridge address including the International Islamic Relief Organisation, a group named in the Philippines as a front organisation for Mr bin Laden. In the case of both organisations, an Islamic internet portal known as Ummah...
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October 29, 2002, The Independent, Cleric suspected of Bali bombing taken from hospital for questioning,

Abu Bakar Bashir, the spiritual leader of the Islamic extremist group suspected of carrying out the Bali bombing, was taken out of hospital for questioning by Indonesian police yesterday.
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October 29, 2002, The Independent, Philippines bomb blast kills six, 175 words

A POWERFUL bomb exploded at an open-air food market in the southern port city of Zamboanga in the Philippines last night, killing at least six people and injuring 53. Officials said another bomb was found near by and safely detonated.
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November 2, 2002, The Independent, Indonesian police shift hunt for Bali bombers to Java,

Indonesian police have identified one of three men sought in connection with the Bali bombing, shifting their focus to the neighbouring island of Java after finding a photograph matching a sketch of him during a raid on a house.
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November 3, 2002, The Independent, Jakarta man arrested for Bali nightclub bombings,

Indonesian police have arrested a man who resembles one of three key suspects sought for the Bali bombings that killed nearly 200 people three weeks ago.
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November 7, 2002, The Independent, Indonesian police arrest suspected owner of Bali bomb van,

Indonesian police have arrested a man they suspect of owning the minivan that exploded outside the Sari Club in Bali last month, killing nearly 200 people.
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November 8, 2002, The Independent, Bali bomb blast: police say van owner has confessed to helping attack nightclub,

Indonesian police are holding a man they believe played a central role in the terrorist attack that killed nearly 200 people at a Bali nightclub last month.
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November 8, 2002, The Independent, Campaign against Terrorism: Libya - Gaddafi's Son Joins Fight to Free Detained Aid Workers, by Imre Karacs, 638 words

...Islam Gaddafi, who played a key role last year in obtaining the release of Western hostages held by Muslim guerrillas in the Philippines, said he was negotiating a similar deal with the Taliban. Eight Western employees of the aid agency Shelter Now were arrested.
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November 9, 2002, The Independent, Bali bombers 'aimed to kill Americans',

The Bali bombers aimed to kill as many Americans as possible and were displeased to discover most of the victims were Australian, Indonesian police said yesterday
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November 9, 2002, The Independent, Storm in Philippines Feared to Have Killed 350, by Erik De Castro, 514 words

A DEVASTATING storm that ripped through the central and southern Philippines may have killed as many as 350 people. Officials said 115 bodies had been recovered in four provinces and another 234 people were...
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November 10, 2002, The Independent, Fresh arrests in swoop on Bali bomber's village,

Indonesian police swooped on the home village of one of the Bali bombers yesterday, raiding houses and arresting the principal of an Islamic boarding school suspected of links with the terrorist attack.
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November 11, 2002, The Independent, The Critics: FILM STUDIES - Some Light Relief in the Heart of Darkness, by David Thomson, 700+ words

...reach the best judgements, yet well aware that he was having a kind of breakdown. What had promised to be a picnic in the Philippines had turned into an ordeal: the weather was terrible; it proved tough getting proper military cooperation; Harvey Keitel..
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November 11, 2002, The Independent, Two die and 15 missing in Manila plane crash,

A Fokker plane carrying 34 passengers and crew crashed into Manila Bay shortly after take-off early today.
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November 12, 2002, The Independent, Bali bombing suspect 'studied under cleric linked to al-Qa'ida',

Indonesian officials said yesterday that the prime suspect in the Bali bombings had studied under a Muslim cleric who is accused of leading an organisation linked to the attack
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November 14, 2002, The Independent, Chief suspect in Bali attack 'delighted' with carnage,

Indonesian police investigating the Bali terrorist attack named four new suspects yesterday while their prime suspect allegedly declared himself "delighted" the bombing had been successful.
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November 15, 2002, The Independent, Hostages - Confusion over Plight of Detained Western Aid Workers, by Imre Karacs, 523 words
CAMPAIGN AGAINST TERRORISM:

...Gaddafi runs a charity that secured the release last year of Western hostages held by an Islamist guerrilla group in the Philippines. Yesterday, the Libyans were bearing good news about the Taliban's prisoners. "I believe that the Taliban will release...
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November 16, 2002, Independent, Indonesian police confound sceptics with speed as they crack terror cell behind bombing, Kathy Marks, in Sydney
Investigators stage public interrogation of chief Bali suspect, Amrozi, who laughs and jokes about bomb victims

The clean-shaven young man in a T-shirt and striped shorts appeared supremely relaxed. He laughed and joked with his inquisitors at police headquarters in Bali and – gesturing towards a small crowd of watching reporters – remarked: "Those are the sorts of people that I wanted to kill."

Indonesian police have made such spectacular progress in their investigation of the Bali bombing that they were forced to stage this bizarre public interrogation of their chief suspect, Amrozi, in an attempt to silence sceptics who say he must have been physically mistreated.

Just a month after the explosions that killed nearly 200 people in Kuta Beach, detectives have a key suspect in custody, the names of up to 10 accomplices and a mountain of scientific evidence. The speed with which the case is being solved by a notoriously corrupt and incompetent police force has astonished the Indonesian public as well as British and Australian members of the international investigation team.

The people of Bali are still struggling to absorb the impact of the blasts at two Kuta nightclubs, the worst terrorist attack since the 11 September strikes in the United States. Yesterday thousands of locals attended a Hindu cleansing ceremony at the bomb site, aimed at banishing evil from the island and enabling the spirits of the dead to ascend peacefully to heaven.

Indonesian police, meanwhile, have confounded expectations, partly thanks to the inspired decision to place General I Made Mangku Pastika, one of the country's most highly respected officers, in charge of the inquiry. Within a fortnight of the attack, good luck, diligent detective work and a series of mistakes by the bombers had set police on the trail of Amrozi, 40, a Javanese mechanic.

Amrozi, arrested 11 days ago in his home village of Tenggulun, east Java, has confessed to a sizable role in the 12 October atrocity. He has given investigators a wealth of information about how it was planned and executed and furnished evidence of the bombers' links with international Islamic extremist organisations.

His apparent eagerness to co-operate has roused widespread cynicism in a country that has been awash with conspiracy and cover-up theories since the explosions. But, judging from his public appearance in Denpasar, the Balinese capital, on Wednesday, he seems to be in good health – apart from a black eye.

Police got their first break an hour after the three blasts when a bystander alerted them to a red Yamaha motorcycle parked outside a mosque in Denpasar. The bike, it appeared, had been used as a getaway vehicle by the person who left a white Mitsubishi minivan packed with explosives outside the Sari Club.

The bike's tail light had been disconnected, presumably so the number plate was not visible as it sped away; chemical residues associated with the explosives were found under the seat. Police traced the salesman, who had sold it to three men several days earlier, and used his descriptions to compile sketches. Another notable mistake made in a highly professional operation was Amrozi's clumsy attempt to disguise his identity by having his hair cut twice in Tenggulun in the week after the attack.

But the biggest breakthrough was a result of the bombers' sloppiness in concealing the origins of the minivan. Rather than stealing a vehicle, they used one recently bought by Amrozi and registered in his name. They changed its chassis number, but police tracked it through a second serial number required to be stamped on all vehicles used for public transport.

During his first 40 hours in custody, Amrozi refused to crack. Then police showed him receipts for 1,100lb of bomb-making materials that he had bought at a chemical supply shop in Surabaya, east Java. Confronted with the serial number connecting him to the van, he broke down and confessed.

Since then, the information has been tumbling out at a pace that has startled even police. General Pastika, who was allowed to hand-pick his detectives for the inquiry, said: "I understand people don't believe what we have reached in a short time." Of Amrozi's arrest, he said: "We were lucky."

General Pastika, who served as a commanding officer for United Nations police in Namibia in the 1980s, has a reputation for integrity in a country where corruption is entrenched. Fluent in six languages, he won respect for standing up to the Indonesian military in the troubled province of West Papua.

He has been cautious in his assessment of the bombers' links with the al-Qa'ida network and Jamaah Islamiya (JI), the regional extremist movement suspected of carrying out attacks in South-east Asia. But security sources think the bombing was conceived after a meeting in Thailand in January chaired by Riduan Isamuddin, alias Hambali, thought to be JI's operations chief.

Amrozi said the planning began in August and much of it took place in Solo, the central Java city that is home to Abu Bakar Bashir, the radical cleric suspected of being JI's spiritual leader. He told police that the team subsequently communicated via mobile phone text messages and gathered in Malaysia in early October before heading to Bali.

Amrozi has admitted to a close friendship with Mr Bashir, who often visited Tenggulun, location of an Islamic boarding school founded by Amrozi's family. Police have raided the Al-Islam school, where boys were reportedly taught hand-to-hand combat and weapons handling. Rifles were seized from an adjoining house.

Amrozi's precise status within the group of bombers remains unclear. Police have described him as a field co- ordinator and "second tier" facilitator. Other members of his family may have played more significant roles. Police believe his elder brother, Mukhlas, leads JI's Malaysian and Singaporean unit and may have recently replaced Hambali as operations chief.

Amrozi has told police he was recruited to the Bali plot by a younger brother, Ali Imron. As he tells it, he was a juvenile delinquent led astray by his siblings.
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November 18, 2002, The Independent, Police name mastermind of Kuta nightclub bombings as senior figure in terror group,

Police in Bali have named the mastermind of last month's bomb attack as an Indonesian man believed to be a senior operative with a regional terrorist organisation.
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November 18, 2002, The Independent, Children Had Gun Lessons at Terror School ; Al-Qa'ida, by Harry Burton, 700+ words

...Mohammad. "They just ran away from here with their families - maybe to Pakistan, I don't know." Muslim militants from the Philippines to Chechnya, from Pakistan to the Middle East, heeded Mr bin Laden's call to wage jihad, or holy war, and they arrived.
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November 22, 2002, The Independent, Police arrest the 'mastermind' of Bali bombings,

Indonesian police claimed another breakthrough last night in the Bali bomb inquiry, arresting the alleged mastermind of the terrorist attack that killed nearly 200 people.
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November 22, 2002, The Independent, Marcos widow sues for pounds 270m, 171 words

IMELDA MARCOS, the Philippines' former first lady, is seeking 20bn pesos (pounds 270m) in damages from the Government over claims that she and her husband, Ferdinand, illegally amassed huge wealth while in power.
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November 23, 2002, The Independent, Bali bombing was a suicide mission, suspect claims,

One of the bombs that went off in Bali last month was detonated by a suicide bomber carrying explosives in a backpack, one of the suspects told Indonesian police yesterday.
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November 25, 2002, The Independent, Bin Laden film found in bomb suspect's home,

A haul of militant Islamic propaganda, including a video of Osama bin Laden's speeches, and bomb-making equipment, has been uncovered at three houses formerly rented by men accused of organising last month's Bali bombings.
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January 1, 2003, The Independent / AP, 10 killed in Philippines grenade attack,

A man who tossed a grenade into a roadside stall selling firecrackers in the southern Philippines, killing at least 10 New Year's revellers and injuring 32 others.

A 14-year-old boy was among those killed in the city of Tacurong in Sultan Kudarat province on southern Mindanao island, police spokesman Leopoldo Bataoil said.

Police were searching for a man seen lobbing the grenade, he said, and police artists were compiling a sketch of the suspect.
"We're still ascertaining the motive," he said.

No one has claimed responsibility, but authorities have blamed the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front for a series of bomb attacks and an ambush that have killed 30 people and injured dozens in the southern Philippines in the last two weeks.

The rebels, who have been fighting for three decades for Muslim self-rule in the region, have denied the charge.

Witnesses said about 50 customers were at the stall buying firecrackers when the blast occurred around 9 p.m. (1300 GMT) at the city's busy square. Four people died instantly, including the 14-year-old, army Capt. Onting Alon said.

It was the fifth bombing in central Mindanao since Christmas Eve, when a homemade bomb killed the mayor of Datu Piang town and 16 others. Police said the MILF was behind that attack.

Tacurong is a mainly Christian agricultural city at the heart of Sultan Kudarat, next to Maguindanao province, where the MILF has many bases.

The city has had many grenade attacks in the past, blamed on MILF members from the provincial rural interior.

Communist New People's Army rebels also have a presence in Tacurong, but they are not known to have staged attacks similar to Tuesday's.

The military and the MILF rebels have accused each other of violating a shaky 1997 truce. Peace negotiations between the MILF and government were suspended in October 2001, but are expected to resume later this month in Malaysia.

Bataoil said the attack came following of a crackdown on illegal firearms and firecrackers in the province, where weapons abound.

Two separate New Year's Eve grenade attacks on the island, believed to be the result of a personal grudge, killed a 2-year-old girl and injured her parents, Bataoil said.
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February 3, 2003, The Independent, Pair held after parading 'Jesus and Virgin Mary', by Lely Djuhari in Dili,

Two men allegedly extorted hundreds of dollars from villagers in East Timor by persuading them to join a religious sect after parading two people they claimed were Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, prosecutors and United Nations staff said yesterday.

The men were arrested last week in southern Suai town, said Amandio de Sa Benvides, a state prosecutor.

The pair, identified only by their initials D B and M S, were due to appear in court later this month on extortion charges, he said.

The men worked alongside a man and woman who posed as Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary to impress the villagers, most of whom were poor and had little formal education, he said. Most of East Timor's 800,000 people are Roman Catholic.

The men then demanded the villagers pay US$16 (£9.70) each to join a group that was allegedly a sect of the Roman Catholic Church. Its name was not known.

They threatened the villagers with violence if they refused to hand over the money, Mr Sa Benvides said.

"The villagers were terrorised and scared," the prosecutor added. "Although they lived on less than a dollar a day, they tried to find the money." He said the two men had collected hundreds of dollars.

Law enforcement authorities questioned the man and woman who had posed as Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, but released them because they were "unwitting accomplices", the prosecutor said.(AP)
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February 10, 2003, The Independent, Murdered child found hanging in guava tree,

A girl aged five was raped and murdered and found hanging from a guava tree in the South Pacific nation of Samoa.
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February 12, 2003, The Independent, On live TV, Bali suspect tells how he made bombs,

Like a travelling salesman showing off his wares, one of the chief suspects in the Bali terrorist attack proudly demonstrated yesterday how the bombs that blew up two nightclubs were assembled.
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March 4, 2003, The Independent, American among 18 killed in Philippines blast,

A powerful explosion outside an airport in the southern Philippines today killed at least 18 people and injured 100 others, authorities said.
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March 5, 2003, The Independent, Bomb attack kills 19 at airport in Philippines,

A powerful bomb in a rucksack exploded at an airport in the southern Philippines yesterday, killing at least 19 people, including an American. A boy, a girl, seven women and 10 men were among the dead. At least 147 people were wounded, and the death toll was expected to climb.
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April 23, 2003, The Independent, Indonesian terror suspects held as Islamist trial opens,

Indonesian police scored another success in the fight against Islamic terrorism in South-east Asia yesterday, arresting 18 members of Jemaah Islamiyah, including the man believed to be its acting spiritual leader.

Abu Rusdan was detained hours before his predecessor, Abu Bakar Bashir, went on trial in Jakarta, accused of ordering a string of church bombings that killed 19 people and seeking to overthrow Indonesia's secular government.

Mr Bashir chose Mr Rusdan to succeed him after he was arrested following last October's nightclub bombings, which killed 202 people on Bali. Police, who arrested Mr Rusdan in Kudus, Java, said they also found a cache of explosives …