THE HUNT FOR ABU SAYYAF KIDNAPPERS
A one-armed Islamic extremist with a US$1-million bounty on his head from kidnappings is the chief suspect in the massive manhunt by Philippine security forces for the killers of Calgary man John Ridsdel.
Rudullan Sahiron — sometimes known as Radillon Sajiron — has eluded capture since abducting Americans and Filipinos for ransom as far back as 2001. Washington’s Rewards for Justice website devotes a page to Sahiron, describing him as the leader of Abu Sayyaf.
“Sahiron is believed to be hiding in southern Mindanao where he continues to plot terror schemes that impact many communities,” the U.S. Justice Department said.
Sahiron, who speaks both Arabic and Tausug, a language spoken in the province of Sulu in the Philippines, lost his right arm above the elbow fighting security forces in the 1970s.
Up to 4,000 Filipino combat troops are searching for Sahiron on his home island of Jolo in the southern Philippines. The Abu Sayyaf leader and about 400 followers are holding other hostages for ransom, including British Columbian Robert Hall. The army and air force offensive kicked up a notch Thursday, with warplanes and artillery attacking mountainous ground held by Abu Sayyaf, according to Filipino news reports. But there was no sign of the remaining hostages.
“Radullan is a fairly committed jihadist who has spent an extensive part of his life fighting on Jolo Island,” after having allegedly received “seed money” from alQaida, said Marc Singer, director of business intelligence for the Manila office of Pacific Strategies and Assessments Inc.
“Everyone puts it on him,” but Sahiron, who is in his 70s and has not been seen in public for about two years, “is more a tribal elder than an active insurgent these days.”
Singer, who has studied the group for years, believes Ben Tatoh Sawadjaan, another senior Abu Sayyaf leader, was responsible for Ridsdel’s death.
“It was Sawadjaan’s Tanun group which grabbed John. It was his group which held him, it was his group which killed him,” Singer said. “In that culture, I am sure Sawadjaan was directly involved in John’s actual murder or would have been on hand for it.”
Sahiron and Sawadjaan are “ruthless monsters. I have seen pictures and videos of what they do and I wish I hadn’t.”
Singer believes the core group in Abu Sayyaf is not large. The Patikul area of Jolo now being searched by several infantry battalions is not much bigger than a couple of football fields, but the vegetation is extremely dense.
Although Abu Sayyaf ’s connections with al-Qaida and its relatively new professed allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant were something to look into, such connections were “easy to exaggerate,” Singer said
I AM SURE SAWADJAAN WAS DIRECTLY INVOLVED IN JOHN’S ACTUAL MURDER.
“We assess them as coming across more as a gang than anything else. They only have a vague sense of wanting to create an autonomous Islamic state.”
Last year’s withdrawal of U.S. special forces commandos from an advisory mission to Philippine troops in Mindanao could have been a factor in a recent increase in the number of kidnappings, Singer says. It created “a power vacuum” Abu Sayyaf has exploited.
As well as the Canadian, Norwegian and Filipina seized with Ridsdel, Abu Sayyaf holds more than 16 foreign hostages from five other countries.
Its members have appeared recently in propaganda videos, brandishing machetes and assault rifles, with black flags like those flown by ISIL behind them. Singer described this as “eye candy to try to get bigger payment.”
Nevertheless, Abu Sayyaf ’s kidnappings and murders have been picked up by ISIL’s media arm because of the attention generated.
“At least symbolically there is a connection,” he said.
Moreover, radical Islam, as portrayed on jihadist websites, appeals to some Filipino Muslims because they live “in crushing poverty” and in what was “a really strong gun culture,” Singer added.
“If you are young and unemployed, somebody will hand you a gun. But this is not an intense movement. It mostly conducts hits and runs on the military. If any infrastructure comes, their days would be numbered.”
In a special report published Thursday under the headline, The Myth of ‘No Negotiations’, Pacific Strategies and Assessments argued “a region’s long-term kidnapping threats are best dealt with through political, military and law enforcement solutions directed at the perpetrators, rather than placing additional burdens on the families of the victim by restricting negotiations or further endangering their lives through a rescue attempt.”
As regards the hostages seized with Ridsdel, PSA said in its advisory that “the most dangerous moments during a kidnapping incident are the first few minutes of the abduction and the next most dangerous time is during an attempted rescue,” such as the one evidently being planned as part of the Philippine military’s offensive.
“Every day they remain out there is bad for them,” Singer said. “From the four videos taken of them we can see how bad their situation is. Each time they are more gaunt. It is barbarism.”