Jolo

Template: Infobox Island / Maintenance / height missing

Jolo (pronounced " Holo ") is a 893 km ² large Philippine island of about 300,000 inhabitants.

Geography

It lies with the surrounding archipelago of Sulu archipelago south of the Sulu Sea, between the southern Philippine island of Mindanao and Borneo. The volcanic island is embossed dotted with numerous volcanic craters and cinder cones.

On Jolo lives a subspecies of sika deer, which is endemic only on this island.

History

Jolo was once the center of a powerful sultanate. After the Spanish-American War, the Filipinos resisted from 1899 the new colonial power. While the resistance in most of the country was broken up in 1903, he took on Jolo until 1916.

Population

The inhabitants belong to the people of the Tausug. They are predominantly Muslim, and accuse the Catholic government of the Philippines the right to discriminate against them. A significant educational institution is the Mindanao State University.

Policy

On 3 January 1999 cast members of the Abu Sayyaf hand grenades into a crowd that was waiting in front of a burning supermarket in the city: Ten people died and 74 were injured. The island became internationally known by the initiated in April 2000 kidnapping of tourists from the Malaysian resort island of Sipadan to Jolo by the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf. The mayor of the town of Jolo estimated that there are on the island alone 20,000 rifles.

Since mid-2003, there are about 2,500 to 3,000 soldiers from the U.S. Army on the island, making the hunt for the Abu Sayyaf Group.

Since Panama is no longer directly under U.S. control, Jolo is discussed as a possible site for a new foundation at the infamous School of the Americas.

On 9 August 2007, there was on the southern Philippine island of Jolo to military information to the bloodiest fighting between Islamist militants and soldiers for years.