ABU SAYAFF SEEKS TALKS WITH GOVTS OF CAPTIVES
In a reversal of an earlier demand for one negotiating
team, the rebels say the hostages' condition is "no good'
JOLO (Philippines) -- Islamic
rebels holding 20 mostly foreign hostages in the southern Philippines said for the first
time yesterday that they were willing to negotiate with the captives' governments for
their release.
Rebel chief Galib Andang,
speaking to Filipino reporters, stressed the need to end the 68-day hostage crisis, saying
the physical condition of their captives was ""no longer good''.
""These hostages
should have been released long ago if the Philippine government had not got itself
involved,'' Andang said, speaking in a local dialect. ""We would have been
talking long ago with the countries whose nationals are our hostage.''
""Even now, if the
Philippine government will authorise foreign countries to negotiate here, this will be
finished,'' Andang added.
Their latest stance is a
complete reversal of what they had demanded earlier yesterday when they insisted on
negotiating with only one government team.
The hostages -- eight
Malaysians, three Germans, two French nationals, two South Africans, two Finns, two
Filipinos one Lebanese -- were abducted by the Abu Sayyaf rebels from a Malaysian diving
resort on April 23 and brought to Jolo island, 960 km from Manila.
Andang's statement marked the
first time that the Abu Sayyaf, which is fighting for an Islamic state in the south of the
mainly Catholic Philippines, had publicly stated it favoured negotiations with the
governments of their foreign hostages. The rebels originally abducted 21 people but freed
a Malaysian national last week.
Meanwhile, Islamic nations
meeting at the Organisation of Islamic Conference in Kuala Lumpur have not discussed the
two-month-old Philippine hostage crisis formally, the chairman of the meeting and a
Philippine Muslim leader said yesterday.
Malaysian Foreign Minister
Datuk Syed Hamid Albar said: ""I think it would be difficult for us now to allow
kidnapping and abduction to take a political dimension.''
At a separate news conference,
Governor of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao in the southern Philippines Nur
Misuari said it was not up to the OIC to discuss the hostage crisis.
""I don't think the
OIC was organised for this sort of thing,'' said the head of the Moro National Liberation
Front and former chief negotiator. --Reuters
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