Manila uses steel hand to free its own but velvet glove to release foreigners

The Philippines yesterday un leashed rockets and cannons on a rebel lair holding kidnapped Filipino children but used diplomacy…

The Philippines yesterday un leashed rockets and cannons on a rebel lair holding kidnapped Filipino children but used diplomacy to try to free 21 hostages seized in Malaysia by Muslim guerrillas.

While government emissaries met rebel representatives on Jolo island, where the hostages abducted from a Malaysian dive resort were being held, about 1,500 soldiers in nearby Basilan fought guerrillas in close combat killing 17 rebels, officials said.

"The smell as they approached the bunkers and tunnels was of dead bodies, they could hardly stand the smell. But we hope the smell does not come from the hostages," the acting armed forces chief, Gen Jose Calimlim, said.

Gen Calimlim said government troops had overrun nearly 80 per cent of the rebels' mountain stronghold after day-long fighting on Basilan island. But there was no sign of the bulk of the rebel force or of the 27 Filipino captives - including 22 schoolchildren and a priest.

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The hostages have been held for more than a month at the camp by the fundamentalist Abu Sayyaf rebels, fighting for an Islamic state in the south of the largely Catholic country.

A provincial government spokesman said the military was thinking of using tear gas to flush out the rebels, adding "it's better than using guns" to avoid harming the hostages.

During the fighting, government troops knocked out a rebel machinegun nest and captured 15 bunkers. They also found bodies of guerrillas in shallow graves.

Confronted by two hostage dramas in a region whose rugged mountains have been the hideouts for decades of Islamic separatist rebels and bandits, the Philippines used the steel hand and the velvet glove.

A former Muslim rebel chief, Mr Nur Misuari, tried diplomacy to win the freedom of 10 foreign tourists, 10 Malaysians and a Filipina also held by Abu Sayyaf guerrillas on Jolo.

Mr Misuari, the government's chief negotiator in the Jolo stalemate, said he was sending word to the kidnappers to release hostages in batches "as part of . . . Islamic persuasive diplomacy".

Apart from the 11 Asians, the hostages are three Germans, two French, two South Africans, two Finns and one Lebanese.

But a police chief whose territory includes Jolo warned talks could drag on for a month since ransom would probably be discussed.

"This time, maybe 15 days to one month," said Supt Candido Casimiro, referring to a drama which began on Sunday when the 21 were snatched from a Malaysian resort island.

They were being held in separate hideouts on Jolo, 960 km south of Manila.

An emissary of Mr Misuari who met rebel representatives in Jolo late yesterday said the guerrillas had demanded implementation of a 1976 accord calling for full autonomy for Muslim areas.

They also demanded a pull-out of big fishing boats owned by multinational companies which they said were robbing poor Muslim fishing villages of their livelihood, the emissary said.

Local officials said the Malaysian hostages could be released first because they were Muslims and unlikely to be able to pay any big ransom which may be demanded. Security forces were securing the road to where the hostages were but police said no action was planned. Mr Misuari said he had received a guarantee the military would stay out.