Aventajado sees release of 3 more Malaysian hostages

THE Abu Sayyaf bandits holding 29 hostages in a jungle on Jolo Island, Sulu, are expected to free three Malaysians in the next few days, chief government negotiator Robert Aventajado said yesterday.

Aventajado said he will meet with Malaysian officials today to work out the details of local Muslim rebels holding 29 hostages, including 15 foreigners, on a southern livelihood projects which Malaysia plans to fund in exchange for their release. Those details will then be passed on to the Abu Sayyaf rebels, negotiators said.

“If we can come up with an agreement, we can work for their release at the earliest Sunday or Monday,” Aventajado said.

The three Malaysians were supposed to be freed two weeks ago, but a last-minute demand by the rebels for a larger ransom blocked their release, negotiators said.

The Malaysians were among 21 hostages who were kidnapped April 23 from Sipadan island and brought to Jolo by boat.

The Abu Sayyaf commander holding the hostages, Ghalib “Robot” Andang, has asked for livelihood projects, including orange, mango and coffee plantations, that would mainly benefit his family and friends.

The rebels have already freed one German and six Malaysians from the Sipadan group after about P190 million ($4.2 million) in ransom was paid, according to military officials.

Aventajado met twice this week with the ambassadors of Germany, France, Finland and South Africa to discuss possible development projects and other details of the agreement.

He said the agreement would not include a ransom payment, but other negotiators have said money will be a crucial element of any settlement.

Aventajado stressed that if he did not stick to government’s no-ransom policy he would have secured the early release of the hostages taken from Sipadan Island, which is both claimed by Malaysia and Indonesia, more than a hundred days ago.

The Abu Sayyaf, a loose collection of several hundred heavily armed Muslim rebels, has demanded $1 million for each Westerner.

The remaining hostages consist of six French, three Malaysians, two Germans, two Finns, two South Africans and 14 Filipinos.

P130-M ransom

Military officials, meantime, said the bandits have demanded P130 million ($2.9 million) for the release of 13 Christian evangelists, led by Wilde Almeda.

The members of the Jesus Miracle Crusade have been held by Abu Sayyaf terrorists since July 1, when they hiked to a guerrilla camp on Jolo Island to pray for the release of 21 people earlier kidnapped from a Malaysian diving resort.

One of the evangelists, Danilo Cuarteros, was released last week with orders to produce the ransom for the group, the senior military intelligence official said.

Cuarteros is now in Manila raising the money and is expected to return to Jolo very soon, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Abu Sayyaf is also holding three French television journalists seized July 9 while covering the hostage crisis.

Most journalists left Jolo last Sunday after police said they could not guarantee their safety following a series of grenade attacks and kidnappings of journalists by the rebels.

Employees abducted

On Wednesday, three employees of a hardware store were abducted by the same group of gunmen that seized two local television journalists last week, according to Abubakar Madangan, nephew of the store owner.

The rebels demanded P1.5 million ($34,000) in ransom, he said.

The store owner said he will not pay the ransom and instead allow the government to solve the problem.

The two TV journalists, who work for the ABS-CBN network, were released Saturday.

Last Thursday, rebels freed a German reporter, Andreas Lorenz of Der Spiegel magazine, after 25 days in captivity. ¨
--with a report from AP

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