| JOURNALISTS
EXIT PHILIPPINE HOSTAGE ISLAND JOLO, Philippines, July 30 (AFP) - Journalists covering a 98-day hostage
crisis packed their bags and were ready to leave this southern Philippines island on
Sunday after authorities said they could no longer assure their safety from kidnappers.
About a dozen reporters,
photographers and television crew members representing international and local news
organizations were to board a ferry for the nearby port of Zamboanga at midday, a day
after Abu Sayyaf gunmen freed two of their Filipino colleagues.
Their departure comes amid
indications the Philippine government is again hardening its stance against the gunmen,
self-styled Muslim independence fighters.
The rebels are holding five
French nationals and a Franco-Lebanese woman, three Malaysians, two Finns, two Germans,
two South Africans and several Filipinos.
After more than four million
dollars was reportedly paid to redeem six Malaysians, two Germans and five Filipinos from
the kidnappers over the past month, a senior official told AFP here that a military cordon
could be deployed around the Abu Sayyaf camp if none of the remaining hostages are freed
within two weeks.
"I think it's best that
the journalists stay here in Zamboanga, because in Jolo it's really become a no man's
land," ABS-CBN television network chairman Gabby Lopez said from nearby Zamboanga
city after two of his crew members were freed.
Chief government negotiator
Roberto Aventajado said as much to the journalists last week.
"We cannot allow a small
band to continue kidnapping while we are negotiating with the Abu Sayyaf. That is adding
insult to injury," he said.
The military last week began
installing roadblocks at the provincial capital for weapons searches amid reports the Abu
Sayyaf has been using the ransoms to procure arms.
President Joseph Estrada was
urged by European governments to lift a military cordon around the Abu Sayyaf early in the
crisis, for fear that armed clashes would endanger the lives of the European hostages.
Aventajado, who insists Manila
has not paid any ransom, told reporters on Saturday night that his emissaries were working
to win the release of the three Malaysians "within two weeks."
Fourteen of the hostages
including the Malaysians remain from among a group of 21 tourists and resort workers
abducted from the Malaysian resort of Sipadan on April 23. They were brought to Jolo by
boat.
The gunmen also hold a
three-member French television crew and a dozen Filipino Christian preachers -- though
Aventajado insists they are no longer considered hostages.
A 13th preacher walked free
from the Abu Sayyaf hideout on Friday.
Back to Sipadan Hostages News
Back
to This Week's Borneo News |
