Author: Erik de Castro
Publication: Reuters
Date: October 24, 2001
Zamboanga, Philippines, Oct 24 (Reuters)
- A Californian tourist kidnapped by Muslim guerrillas in the Philippines
wept and pleaded with his captors before they beheaded him in June, a detained
teenager who was part of the group said on Wednesday.
"He cried and said 'no, no' as he
was made to kneel," 16- year-old Basit Balahim told reporters from a police
cell in the southern city of Zamboanga, referring to the killing of Guillermo
Sobero.
Sobero, a 40-year-old from Corona,
California, was kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas from an island resort
in the western Philippines on May 27 along with 17 Filipinos and two other
Americans.
The Abu Sayyaf, which has been linked
to the al Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden, said it beheaded Sobero some
two weeks later on the southern island of Basilan as a warning.
The group still holds U.S. missionaries
Gracia and Martin Burnham and nine Filipinos hostage on Basilan, a mountainous
jungle-clad isle off Zamboanga.
Balahim and his father, Abdul Kap,
a senior leader of the Abu Sayyaf, were arrested on Basilan on Sunday and
brought to Zamboanga, the military said.
The clean-shaven teenager, who sported
extremely long hair, said Sobero was hacked to death with a machete by
an aide to guerrilla leader Khadafy Janjalani while others watched.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Embassy
said it had positively identified skeletal remains found on Basilan as
those of Sobero.
Balahim said he had been a member
of the Abu Sayyaf since he was 14 and had killed several soldiers. He was
being held in a cell with a wooden grill across the windows, guarded by
several policemen armed with assault rifles.
"I no longer want to be an Abu Sayyaf
member," Balahim said. "You are always on the run. It's difficult being
pursued by a lot of soldiers."
The military has said its special
forces troops have scored several successes against the Abu Sayyaf in the
past few weeks and would "demolish" the group by the end of November.
A U.S. military counter-terrorism
team has arrived in Zamboanga to give advice and suggest equipment which
can be used in the fight against the Abu Sayyaf, local army officials have
said.
The Abu Sayyaf says it is fighting
for an independent Muslim homeland in the south of the Roman Catholic Philippines
but appears to pursue kidnap for ransom as its main activity.
The government has called it a group
of bandits and has refused to negotiate.
