ABU HOSTAGES DANCE WOES AWAY IN SOIREE
JOLO, Sulu—Western tourists and a Filipino woman
being held hostage by Muslim guerrillas danced, sang and wept Sunday as they made a wish
for freedom during a birthday party for one of the captives.
The Abu Sayyaf guerrillas allowed the 10 hostages to
celebrate German Marc Wallert’s 25th birthday for two hours in a jungle here where
the captives are being held, a police official said.
The hostages were joined by a group of Christian
evangelists, who were also taken hostage by the rebels after they traveled to the
guerrilla camp on July 1 to pray for the hostages, said the official, citing rebel
contacts. The official declined to be named.
“I wish for our freedom,” Wallert said
after blowing a candle shaped like the number 25 on his cake.
The cake was sent by Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan
along with boxes of instant noodles, bottled water and canned goods sent by the German and
Malaysian governments for the hostages.
There is still no indication when the rebels will
free their hostages.
Cops killed
A man shot and killed two policemen yesterday in a
shopping center here.
Fellow policemen, angered by the attack, went to a
crowded public market in southern Jolo town in Sulu province and fired shots in the air,
setting off a stampede among vendors and shoppers, witnesses said. Army soldiers later
went to the area to pacify the policemen.
Sulu police chief Candido Casimiro said the two
officers were buying used clothes in the predominantly Muslim town of Jolo when they were
shot in the head. The attacker, who fled on foot, apparently took the gun of one of his
victims, investigators said.
The officers, both Christians, were members of the
national police’s special action force, a large contingent which has been deployed as
additional security for Jolo, where Abu Sayyaf guerrillas are holding 20 mostly foreign
hostages they seized from Malaysia on April 23.
Many policemen and army soldiers have been killed in
attacks by suspected Muslim rebels in Jolo, a place notorious for rampant killings,
piracy, smuggling and rebellion.
Abducted
A German journalist, Andreas Lorenz of Der Speigel
magazine, was also abducted July 2 while covering the hostage crisis. Local officials said
a ransom of P100,000 ($2,270) has been paid to Lorenz’ kidnappers, indicating he
could be freed soon.
The Abu Sayyaf
kidnapped three Germans, two French, two Finns, two South Africans, a Lebanese, nine
Malaysians and two Filipinos on April 23 from a diving resort being distributed by
Malaysia and Indonesia and brought them by boat to Jolo, Sulu, about 940 kilometers (582
miles) south of Manila.
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