Gunmen seize divers in Sipadan

by Malcolm Hey

Reproduced from in focus 68 (June 2002)

Sipadan, a regular dive destination for many British divers, was invaded by heavily armed masked gunmen on 23 April - Easter Sunday. 21 people, including European divers, were taken hostage at gunpoint (and taken by their captors to the Sulu islands in the southern Philippines).

Six Filipino gunmen armed with rocket launchers and automatic weapons come ashore just after nightfall. They initially ambushed a police post and took the one police guard on duty. They then proceeded to the Wildlife Department office and Pulau-Sipadan dive centre taking another 20 people captive. An American couple on their first visit to Sipadan managed to escape in the dark and ran into the forest at the back of the dive centres. The abduction happened in less than one hour with the gunmen ambushing the police post just after sundown and fleeing the island on two speedboats towards the Philippines just 45 minutes later. No shooting took place and the gunmen snatched money and valuables from the hostages before herding them onto the boots. Half those abducted were visiting dive-tourists - two French, three German, two Finns, two South African and a Lebanese. Others included Wildlif e Rangers and staff from dive centres.

The invading group is known to belong to the Abu Sayyof, a Muslim separatist group based in the Sulu Archipelago 600 miles south of Manila where they are holding their captives hostage on the island of Jolo. The Abu Sayyaf is one of several Filipino guerrilla organisations operating in the south of the country that have been warring for almost 30 years for an Islamic state, independent of the mainly Catholic Philippines. Hostage-taking is the latest in a resurgence of violence that has included a grenade attack on a church service and a kill-and-burn attack on a Christian town. Previous activities have been limited to the southern Filipino islands. This is the first time the group has targeted the normally peaceful Malaysion islands and is the first and only terrorist incident to cif fect tourists in Malaysia's history. It come as a complete shock both to the tourist industry and the Malaysion authorities.

The initial demands by the guerrillas included a $2.4m ransom and the release of Muslims imprisoned in the USA for their masterminding of, and involvement in, the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre. The Abu Sayyaf was already holding 29 other hostages, mostly children, on Basilan Island not far from the Sulu Island group. There, two Filipino hostages have been beheaded by their captors. Government forces mounted an assault on the Basilan camp of the Abu Sayyaf the day before the Sipaclan abductions. Dozens of soldiers' and rebels' lives were lost but the hostages reinained captive. It is thought that the Sipadan raid may have been a reaction to the assault on the Basilan camp. During a later military assault thirteen children and two adults were rescued from the Basilan camp but four of the hostages were killed during the operation to free them.

On Jolo where the Sipadan hostages are being held government forces used artillery on the camp where the hostages were in captivity and there was a period of tension during which the captors threatened to behead some of their hostages. Many of the hostages are suffering from diarrhoea and urinary tract infections. Medical supplies have been admitted into the camp and journalists have access to the hostages. The guerrillas have broken through the military cordon and moved their hostages to a different camp. Government negotiators are in talks with the rebels who are now demanding a £2m ransom for the release of a 57-year-old German woman suffering from high blood pressure and who has become weak and very ill. The Government's negotiator has warned there could be months of tough bargaining ahead.

Meanwhile back in Sipadan, all civilians were evacuated to nearby Mabul island and Malaysian government security forces brought in to tighten security in the coastal regions. Security forces are now stationed on all resort islands in Sabah state, including Sipadan and Mabul. Within days of the abductions business was back to normal at the dive centres and new visitors were arriving to start their holiday on this normally peaceful island.

Reproduced from in focus 68 (June 2002)