Ex-Sayyaf hostage, Baker Atyani bares ordeal, links Filipino journo to kidnapping

 

Former Abu Sayyaf hostage, Jordanian journalist Baker Atyani, has implicated a Filipino journalist whom he accused of setting him up that led to his capture by the al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group in the southern Philippines.

Atyani, the Pakistan bureau chief of Al-Arabiya television, sneaked into camps of the terror group along with his two Filipino assistants, Rolando Letrero and Ramelito Vela, to film Moro National Liberation Front and leaders of the Abu Sayyaf that authorities have linked to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya, but had been taken prisoner. His two Filipino companions had been freed in February 2013.

Military and police said Atyani arrived in Sulu on June 11, 2012 and went the next day to the Abu Sayyaf with the help a local guide. The Jordanian journalist had made prior arrangement with the Abu Sayyaf to film a documentary about the terror group.

Filipino authorities said Atyani deceived local officials after he claimed to be filming government projects in Sulu, one of five provinces under the Muslim autonomous region.

Provincial officials had repeatedly warned Atyani against interviewing the Abu Sayyaf, but the trio went ahead and secretly met with terrorist leaders, among them Nadzmie Alih.They were first reported missing after failing to return to their hostel in Jolo town, but phoned local officials two days later to say that they were still filming a documentary on the Abu Sayyaf until the terror group detained them.

Ordeal

Speaking to Al Arabiya’s Panorama program, Atyani told his ordeal in the hands of his captors and said the unnamed journalist whom he met in the Philippines, may be involved in his kidnapping.

“I cannot accuse him directly, but there are many indicators that make me point a finger at him. He might have been involved in kidnapping me. I mean, he might have known that there is a kidnapping process, and he might have handed me to this group in order to get a share of the ransom which will probably be paid,” Atyani said.

He said one of those in the Abu Sayyaf group has told him that they were provided information about him and his trip to Sulu.

“The (Abu Sayyaf) man started to speak with me about some of the arrangements that preceded the kidnapping and about the person who gave them the goal or the victim, who is the journalist. I have until now evidence and I filed in the Philippines an official lawsuit against the group, and among the suspected people is the journalist,” Atyani said.

Atyani, a veteran journalist who had clandestinely interviewed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden before the 9/11 attacks in the United Statesin 2011, did not identify the journalist, but he met several Filipino journalists in Manilabefore flying to Sulu, where he also met a few journalists.

Narrating his ordeal, Atyani said he was surprised after the Abu Sayyaf group told him that he was being detained. Atyani said his mission in filming the documentary was to convey scenes of the daily life of the Muslims in Sulu to the world.

Documentary film

He said the essence of his mission was to attempt to draw the attention of the Arab, Islamic and international community to the situation of the locals in Sulu and thus help them overcome their life difficulties.

“I was working on a documentary film that discussed the conditions in which the Muslims lived, and the crisis in Mindanao, the second biggest island in the Philippines which is inhabited by Muslims. The mission is to shed light on their conditions and the ongoing crisis in southern Philippines and in light of that we went to Manila, and from there one of the parties of the conflict and mainly Abu Sayyaf group, and of course there were other parties that met with Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Moro National Liberation Front, the Government of Philippines, the army of Philippines and some Islamic political figures,” Atyani said.

Atyani said Radulan Sahiron largely controls the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu and that several leaders, including Rajlan Sahir and Kasman Sujan, also operate in the province and are being supported by Sahiron by providing them munitions.

He said Sahir’s group held him captive and at one time was attacked by security forces and that Sahiron sent him munitions to fight the military. The boxes of ammunition had “Government Arsenal” written on it, he said.

“They (Abu Sayyaf) cooperate together in some kidnapping operations sometimes, they distribute hostages among them and when the (ransom) money comes, the main group (of Sahiron) for the kidnapping takes the ransom and as I indicated twenty percent go to first leader (Sahiron,” Atyani said.

“It does not matter if the kidnapped (victim) is Muslim or non-Muslim from a foreign country, or from any other religion, they do not think about this issue, and do not care about it. What matters is that this person is a hostage and they can get a ransom because of him. The main funding source of this group is kidnapping operations and it has no other funding sources other than kidnapping and pillage,” he added.

Un-Islamic

He said the Abu Sayyaf and its actions have no relation to Islam at all. “They know nothing even about life, they know only about Islam. They know nothing about Islam, just Islam. Some of them did not come out of the jungle for 20 years. One of them was shocked and asked me if we are in 2007. I am talking about something I heard. The people are not living in this world, they live in a jungle and without knowing what is happening in the world,” Atyani said.

“The issue of Islam here, the issue of being Muslim or not is not very important here, what is important is that they found a source of money, some of them used to say, yes you are Muslim, and we are very sorry for what happened, but we want the money, simply we want it. The sad thing is that the people who follow them believe that this is Islam, and this is how people deal with each other in Islam. In the West when they hear about Abu Sayyaf, they think that Muslims are terrorists,” he said.

Fear

During his captivity, Atyani said the Abu Sayyaf brought him a local nurse to look into his health condition and she told him that the armed group threatened to kill his family if she will not come to the Abu Sayyaf camp.

“I remember that I got sick lately, so they brought me a nurse into the woods, and she told me that she has been living in fear and terror because of them since 2003 and if I do not come at the time they asked, they would kill my family, there is a threat against her family, living in the same island, in the same area. If she does not come at the time set by the gang, they would kill her family,” Atyani said.

Atyani said an Abu Sayyaf translator, who spoke English to him eventually fled after the group discovered that he was helping him plot his escape. “They were prepared to kill him, he knew this and managed to escape and moved to another island, it is a gang, they kill the person who does not accept to be governed by them or doesn't want to abide by the agreement or their way of life,” he said.

He said he also saw children carrying automatic rifles during his captivity.

"You see a child carrying an M16 weapon that is longer than him. I witnessed that, it is a shame for a person to see this, to see people living without education, without any target in life, with only goal that is kidnapping. They used to say to each other, if you want to get married, kidnap someone and with the ransom money, you can get married. If you wanted to buy clothes or a new mobile phone, kidnap someone and you can buy whatever you want. Kidnapping has become a source of livelihood the only source of livelihood for them,” he said.

Atyani said he was constantly moved from one hideout to another – eleven times in three different areas during his captivity and stayed in bamboo houses or slept on hammock. He said civilians fear the Abu Sayyaf and was forced to cooperate with them.

“They are people whom Abu Sayyaf group imposed itself upon them, and there are some people who cooperate with them, but they do not do it because they love them or they are convinced with their views, but because they fear them,” he said.

Atyani said he was not harmed by the Abu Sayyaf despite his attempt to escape twice, but the psychological torture of being a prisoner, he claimed, had affected him. 

At the end of the program, when Atyani was asked if he would still go back to the Southern Philippines after his harrowing ordeal, he said: “I do not think that I was performing a press assignment, I was looking for the truth. I would never regret the fact that I was looking for the truth, so on the contrary, I will continue this mission that we believe is a noble mission and I am personally convinced about it. There is no doubt that this was a hard experience and tragedy, but it made me stronger and increased my faith in the necessity to convey the truth and the honest word to the viewers.”

The Philippine military previously said it would arrest Atyani for espionage after security officials started investigating the true intention of his clandestine interview with terror leaders in Sulu, but it shelved the plan for a still unknown reason.

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