The plight of hostages captured by rebels and held in the island of Jolo serves to highlight not only calls for setting up an Islamic state in the southern Philippines but also the burgeoning incidence of piracy in the seas of South East Asia. A largely Muslim area of the Philippines has seen a great deal of unrest in recent years. Its cultural separateness from the rest of the mainly Roman Catholic country has spawned a number of independence groups. While Islam has been a unifying factor among opponents of the central government in Manila, economic issues have also been important.
The taking of land by migrants from the north in the 1960s sowed the seeds of bitterness among local people. State services such as education, health and welfare have been provided at a lower level than in other parts of the country. These factors, allied to a lack of success by more established groups, have caused younger and extreme separatists to gain support.
The hostages, many of whom were on a diving holiday, were abducted from a Malaysian island and carried across the narrow sea to the Philippines where they are now being held. The kidnappers, identifying themselves as members of the Abu Sayyaf rebel group, are reported to have demanded a $2.4 million ransom and to have their claims for an independent Islamic republic publicised.
Whatever the grievances of the rebels, their threat to behead two of the hostages - if encircling units of the Philippine armed forces are not withdrawn - is barbaric. But it must, at the same time, be taken seriously. Beheadings have taken place in the region in the past and summary executions of this nature have also been carried out, for example, by bandits in Chechnya under the tenuous banner of Islamic rebellion. In both cases, links with the Islamic terror group led by Osama Bin Laden have been suggested.
The region from which the hostages were abducted is one in which piracy and brigandage are rampant. High speed boats, many of them equipped with state-of-the-art satellite navigational aids, have terrorised the seas to such an extent that countries of the region, including Japan, agreed at a conference last week, to increase co-operation in combating this menace.
The fact that Japanese participation in such a project has even been considered is of considerable importance. Armed Japanese presence in the seas of the region has been virtually non-existent since the end of the Second World War and the welcome given by many countries to Tokyo's input is a sign of increased maturity in the region and of the intensity of the problem being faced.
While publicly supporting the actions of the Filipino authorities in their attempts to rescue the Jolo hostages, Malaysian officials have privately expressed concern at the lack of anti-piracy patrols on the Filipino side of the straits which divide the two countries. The safety of the hostages on Jolo island is of paramount importance in the short term. Similar events may be prevented in future by political concessions on both sides in the Philippine dispute and effective patrolling of the region's waters.