SUMMARY
After the Second World War, Filipino independence from Spanish and American colonial rule brought about an entrenchment of a national identity based upon the values of the majority group in the country, the Christians (Philippines). The Government of Philippines encouraged the Christians (Philippines) landless poor of Luzon to settle in Mindanao to defuse the Muslims (Philippines) resistance to the attempted assimilation. The government saw the resistance as a manifestation of the “violent” character of the Moros (another word for Southern Filipino Muslims), and launched several pacification campaigns during the 1960s. The ethnic and religious balance was altered and in the two decades after the end of the Second World War, the overall Muslims (Philippines) majority in Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago was reduced to less than one-fourth of the population. This influx of settlers created resentment in the local Muslims (Philippines) population and the animosity was further fuelled as Muslims (Philippines) were dominated by Filipino Christians and the Chinese in the land and commerce area. For example, on the Basilian Island where Muslims (Philippines) were still in majority, Christians (Philippines) owned most of the land while the Chinese controlled most of the local trade. It is argued that the economic and political desperation of these areas fostered the hatred that rendered separatist organizations like ASG willing to use sectarian violence against civilians to achieve their goals. The Philippine government claims that ASG is trying to forcefully evict Christians (Philippines) from Mindanao with their attacks against civilians. The former leader of ASG, Khaddafy Janjalani stated before his death that the enemy was not to be distinguished as to whether they were armed or not and justified ASG's actions by claiming that many Muslims (Philippines) civilians have been killed by the Philippine military.
Abu Sayyaf’s general mode of targeting civilians has been bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, and extortion. The group is known for beheading their victims.
As far as patterns in the violence can be discerned, in the first 5 years of the organization’s life, the attacks were directed almost exclusively at Christians (Philippines) targets: bombings and grenade attacks of churches, and assassinations and kidnappings of clergy and missionaries; ASG's first known attack in 1991 killed two American evangelists. The group’s attacks decreased in the last half of the 1990s, mainly because their resource supply was cut off (allegedly from al-Qaida) and due to the death of the ASG founder Abdurajak Janjalani. In this phase, their commitment to establishing an Islamic state was reduced, and despite the public appearance of adherence to the jihadi way, the group was engaged almost completely in perpetrating very high profile kidnappings for ransom – most notably the kidnapping of foreign nationals in 2000 from a Malaysian resort, for which ASG received an estimated $10-25 million in ransom from foreign governments. In 2000-01, they were responsible for approximately 40 deaths and 140 hostage-takings, but almost no acts of political-religious terrorism. According to analysts, ASG's rationale for targeting civilians was increasingly related to profit.
However, in 2003 a new tendency emerged. Kidnapping incidents by ASG greatly reduced and the few hostage incidents that were left all ended in executions, not demands for ransom. The other civilian targets on ASG's traditional territory appeared to be mostly suspected intelligence operatives or informers as opposed to Christian Mindanoans. In mid-2003, the group also started operations (especially bombings) outside their turf, in urban centers such as Manila and Cebu. One striking example is the 2004 bombing of a passenger ferry in Manila Bay, killing 116 people.
ASG first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 1995, when the one-sided violence resulted in over 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached in April that year due to the mass-killing of 53 people in the mainly Christian town of Ipil.
