SUNGAI BULOH, MALAYSIA // A Malaysian wildlife trader held captive by suspected Abu Sayyaf militants for a year in the southern Philippines says he saw group members as young as 15 skilled in using M16 rifles that were prevalent in the impoverished region.
Nazarrudin Saidin's account gives a rare glimpse into the operations of the Al Qaeda-linked militant group, blamed for many ransom kidnappings, bomb attacks and beheadings over more than two decades.
It also details an ordeal that started in May of last year when masked gunmen abducted Mr Nazarrudin on the Philippine island of Jolo, moving him to hideouts on other islands over the following 12 months. He escaped at one point and hid in a mangrove, only to return to his kidnappers out of hunger - "I felt like I was on the verge of dying". He finally escaped to safety two weeks ago.
"I saw teenagers as young as 15 walking around in the villages with M16 rifles and pistols," Mr Nazarrudin said in a small, rundown home just north of Kuala Lumpur, where he lives with his wife, six children and parents near a palm oil plantation.
"Sometimes they practised shooting in the jungle and seemed skilful in handling the weapons," he said, adding that he believed they were Abu Sayyaf members.
A 2011 UN report said other former Abu Sayyaf captives also have reported children in the group's ranks, but that the claims "could not be verified owing to security constraints". Photographs and television footage taken inside Abu Sayyaf camps have appeared to confirm the presence of armed teenagers.
Abu Sayyaf has not commented publicly on child soldiers, but other militant Muslim groups in the Philippines have described a policy of admitting youths as young as 15 as trainees, while requiring them to be 18 before engaging in combat.
Abu Sayyaf's stated goal is a separate Islamic state in the south of the mainly Catholic Philippines, though its fighters from impoverished villages are attracted more by ransom money than ideology.
US-backed military strikes have weakened the group, which now numbers about 400 by military estimates, but it's still considered a threat to regional security and is currently suspected in the kidnapping of a former Australian soldier and a Japanese.
Mr Nazarrudin said he saw only light weapons and machetes among his captors. He was mainly held indoors and did not know who the Abu Sayyaf leaders were. He said he rarely saw regular villagers, but his captivity for long stretches in various places indicated the militants still had the tacit support of communities in the region.
"I told them many times that I am not a rich man but they wanted money. They said they are poor and oppressed by their government but [I believe] as Muslims, they shouldn't do such things," he said.
The Abu Sayyaf raised US$704,000 (Dh2.6 million) in 11 kidnappings in 2010 and killed six Filipino hostages whose families failed to pay a bounty, according to a the government.
Mr Nazarrudin, a former lorry driver, apparently went to Jolo to obtain geckos, which are used in many Asian countries for medicines and tonics and are popular in the global pet trade.
He was sleeping in a friend's house one night when gunman stormed in and took him. He was handcuffed and forced to walk for hours in the dark to a village in the jungle, where he was kept in a hut. His captors removed his handcuffs after two weeks and fed him vegetables and sometimes fried rice.
A Philippine military official said the militants would not likely have harmed Mr Nazarrudin because of concerns it may prompt a backlash against thousands of Filipinos working nearby in Malaysia's eastern Sabah state on Borneo island.
Last week, Nazarrudin flew back to Kuala Lumpur for a tearful family reunion.
"This experience has made me a better man but I will never return to the Philippines again," he said.
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
THE SPECS
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The specs
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COMPANY PROFILE
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SPECS
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
FA Cup semi-finals
Saturday: Manchester United v Tottenham Hotspur, 8.15pm (UAE)
Sunday: Chelsea v Southampton, 6pm (UAE)
Matches on Bein Sports
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
