No end in sight as Philippine hostage crisis
enters its fifth month
MANILA, Aug 23 (AFP) - The
hostage crisis remained unresolved as it entered its fifth month Wednesday, with the Abu
Sayyaf gunmen pressing for more ransom money and the six governments affected becoming
increasingly nervous over the safety of their nationals.
The crisis appeared to have
been nearing an end last weekend, but the gunmen reneged on their promise to release all
their captives, citing insufficient ransom and the prospects of an ensuing military
crackdown.
Libya and the Philippines are
now working on a new deal to appease the Abu Sayyaf, a group of bandits, led by the
diminutive Ghalib "Commander Robot" Andang, who frequently stage kidnappings in
the southern Philippines.
"A new round of
negotiations with Robot's group will prolong" the hostage saga, said Alex Magno, an
academic at the University of the Philippines.
"It will intensify the
painful dilemma the government must deal with," he said.
After much haggling, Libya,
which is playing a key role in the negotiations, has reportedly agreed to a demand by the
Abu Sayyaf to pay one million dollars each for the 12 Western hostages among the 27
captives held on Jolo island.
The money is believed to be in
addition to the 25 million dollars Libya has pledged in development aid to Jolo island, an
Abu Sayyaf stronghold.
The Philippine government has
also softened its insistence that all the hostages be released together.
"We are optimistic that
there will be a solution," Libyan envoy Mohamed Ismail told AFP in Manila Wednesday,
adding that Manila and Tripoli "don't have a time frame" for resolving the
crisis.
"They (Abu Sayyaf) have to
come to a solution at one point. They cannot keep the hostages forever," said Ismail,
an official of the Libyan charity headed by a son of Colonel Moamer Kadhafi.
Some analysts say if the new
Libyan deal fails, the hostage crisis may last to at least Christmas.
It is already the longest ever
kidnapping saga involving the Abu Sayyaf gunmen who have previously abducted Italian
Christian priests, Spanish nuns, American missionaries and Taiwanese and Hong Kong
businessmen.
These previous kidnappings
lasted up to three months.
Some analysts blame the
Philippine government for prolonging the crisis, by allowing the involvement of too many
people in the negotiations and too many indiscretions by officials.
"Never in the history of
hostage-taking by terrorists have negotiators allowed too many crooks and so many dirty
fingers in the cookie jar, and talked too much, treating it like a media event. Only in
the Philippines as always," wrote columnist Emil Jurado in the Manila Standard.
The governments of the Western
hostages have also asked Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazaon to request officials in Manila
stop making threatening statements against the kidnappers, fearing they might harm the
captives.
"This is not just a simple
case of hostage negotiations," said Siazon. "There are so many things involved
-- the European Union, Libya and the Organisation of Islamic Conference. You always have
to factor that there.
"And then in the Abu
Sayyaf group, there is also disagreement," Siazon said, apparently referring to the
multitude of demands raised by the group since the crisis began on April 23 when the
guerrillas abducted 21 mostly foreigners in the Sipadan resort in Malaysia and brought
them to their stronghold in Jolo island.
Four months later, the
kidnappers have released 11 of the Sipadan hostages for whom the Philippine military said
a cash ransom of 5.5 million dollars could have been paid.
But the gunmen now have added
six more hostages to those remaining from the original group they abducted. The new
captives include journalists covering the crisis and a group of Filipino preachers who
went to pray over the hostages.
All nine Malaysians, a German
and a Filipina from the Sipadan abduction have been freed, along with a German reporter,
two Filipino journalists and a local construction worker.
The remaining hostages include
five French people, a Franco-Lebanese woman, two Germans, two Finns, a South African
couple and 15 Filipinos.
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