Going on previous form, achieving the release of Fr Michael Sinnott could be a long process, writes CLIFFORD COONAN
IN THE southern Philippines, kidnapping is a way of life for the armed groups fighting for autonomy. Fr Michael Sinnott (80), one of a legion of Catholic missionaries working in the southeast Asian country for decades, is an innocent victim in one of the world’s great forgotten wars.
While nobody has claimed responsibility for the abduction on Sunday, authorities suspect the kidnapping was carried out by either the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group, or by Muslim rebels from the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Both groups have a history of using kidnapping to fund their activities.
Since 1978, fighting between government troops and the liberation front on the southern island of Mindanao has claimed 120,000 lives and made up to two million people homeless.
There are thousands of refugees fleeing the conflict now, victims of attacks by both the rebels and the army. Aid agencies say the refugee crisis is developing into a humanitarian crisis, with no resolution in sight.
Abu Sayyaf was established in the early 1990s, with money that terror analysts believe came from al-Qaeda, to fight for a Muslim state in Mindanao.
The fact that Fr Sinnott was seen heading away in a boat towards a liberation front stronghold in neighbouring Lanao del Norte province suggests the group may be involved.
The 12,000-member rebel group has been fighting for an independent state or, in more recent times, a region in the south with higher autonomy for Muslims. The liberation front and the government signed a ceasefire in 2003, but the fighting never really stopped and efforts to find a lasting piece foundered.
Going on previous form, achieving Fr Sinnott’s release could be a long process.
Nine months ago, Abu Sayyaf snatched three Red Cross workers on the island of Jolo, also in the southern Philippines.
The three workers – a Swiss, an Italian and a Filipina – were freed one after the other in a hostage crisis that lasted for six months.
The military believes that rogue rebels from the liberation front, sometimes working with members of a bandit group known as the Pentagon Gang, have been responsible for the abduction of three Italian priests in the last decade.
The local archbishop is sent a ransom note and the military says the ransom is paid, although often the victims deny this.
Priests are an easy target, as they operate in high-profile fashion in the Philippines and usually go about their business without any security.
Mention that you are Irish in many towns in the Philippines and people immediately mention how highly they regard the Irish clergy and its work in the country.
Catholic priests, many of them Irish, have been involved in a number of social programmes such as efforts to combat child prostitution, which have made them targets for local gangsters.
When meeting these priests in towns in the Philippines, one is struck by their courage and selfless dedication to their work.
Giancarlo Bossi was kidnapped in a town near Pagadian in 2007 and held for more than a month before being freed, allegedly after payment of a ransom, the Mindanao Examiner reported.
Abu Sayyaf kidnapped Fr Luciano Benedetti in Zamboanga del Norte province in 1998 and held him for nearly 10 weeks until he was freed in exchange for a huge government ransom.
The group struck again in 2001, snatching Fr Giuseppe Pierantoni (51) from Bologna, as he said Mass in a parish church of Zamboanga del Sur. He was freed after six months in exchange for an unspecified ransom, although he said he escaped. The group also seized three Americans along with a group of Filipino tourists from an island resort in 2001.
One of the Americans was beheaded, while another was killed during a military rescue.
Violence escalated in Mindanao in 2007 after the supreme court in Manila stopped the government from signing a territorial pact with the rebel group that would have given it a large degree of autonomy.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front stepped up its activities, attacking towns and villages all over the region. Hundreds died, including scores of civilians, after the army intervened in aggressive fashion.
Terror groups find it easy to operate in the Philippines, where the central government finds it difficult to impose its authority on often unruly regions. There are a million licensed gun-owners in the Philippines, but millions more firearms are owned illegally.
The Manila government is fighting wars on many fronts. It is waging a bloody battle against Communist insurgents of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Luzon.
The NPA, which the military estimates to have 5,000 fighters, had been widely believed to be a spent force after nearly 40 years of insurgency, but the guerrilla group has become more active in recent years, attacking remote military and police barracks to seize weapons.
Many of the regional conflicts have been going on for a long time and they die down and flare up regularly, largely unnoticed in the wider world. The toll of casualties, however, is often very high.