PHILIPPINES EYES FREEDOM FOR HOSTAGES IN JULY
A Philippine negotiator has
said some of the 20 mostly foreign hostages held by Muslim rebels may be freed before 24
July, when President Joseph Estrada leaves for a visit to the United States.
Presidential assistant
secretary Farouk Hussain also said Manila had information suggesting the hostage-taking
might have been planned by a Malaysia-based group seeking to destabilise some countries in
the region.
He did not elaborate but said
the whole issue might ultimately might boil down to ransom money.
The prospect that some of these
hostages may soon be freed is definitely welcome.
But government negotiators warn
that it is difficult for all of them to be released because of "other agendas"
the rebels want to put across.
The hostages -- eight
Malaysians, three Germans, two French nationals, two South Africans, two Finns, two
Filipinos and a Lebanese -- were abducted from a Malaysian diving resort on April 23 and
brought to the southern Philippine island of Jolo.
Manila says a government team
would fly back to Jolo on Thursday to resume talks suspended for more than three weeks,
owing to what officials said were escalating rebel demands.
The hostage saga has been
complicated by Sunday's abduction of a German journalist and by the apparent detention of
13 Filipino Christians who trekked to the rebel camp on Saturday to pray for the captives.
The rebels have insisted that
the evangelists were not being held hostage but were staying in the forests to fast and
pray for 44 days.
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