Freed European hostages in Philippines leave
for Libya on way home
CEBU, Philippines, Sept 11
(AFP) - Four Europeans freed by Muslim gunmen in the Philippines left Monday for Libya en
route home, carrying bitter memories of their four-and-a-half-month jungle captivity.
"I wish the ones who
kidnapped us would be condemned in a trial because they have committed a crime and crime
should be punished," Finn Risto Vahanen told local television.
Vahanen, 47, another Finn Seppo
Fraenti, 51, Frenchman Stephane Loisy, 34, and German Marc Wallert, 27, emerged from the
Jolo jungles on Saturday in tattered clothes and heavy beards.
They described their captivity
in the hands of Abu Sayyaf extremists as "hell" and a "nightmare."
"I hope your country will
find a peaceful solution in Jolo," Vahanen said before boarding the dawn flight to
freedom.
The Abu Sayyaf guerrillas are
still holding two French journalists, an American tourist and 16 Filipinos in their jungle
lair in southern Jolo island.
A Libyan plane arrived in this
central Philippine city early Monday to ferry the four to Tripoli where they are expected
to be met by Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi who played a key role in their release.
The four were accompanied by
medical personnel and diplomats from their countries as well as Libyan mediator Rajab
Azzarouq, Tripoli's point man in negotiations with the Abu Sayyaf guerillas.
The Russian-made plane was
chartered by the Kadhafi Charitable Foundation, an organization headed by Kadhafi's son
Seif al-Islam, which offered up to 10 million dollars in funding for development aid to
poor Muslim areas in the southern Philippines.
Sources close to the
negotiations said millions of dollars in ransom were also paid to the guerrillas, but this
has been denied by the foundation.
The 16-hour journey to Tripoli
would include a refuelling stopover in the United Arab Emirates.
"I'm just waiting to go
home. I am very happy to be freed," said Loisy, who spent his first full day of
freedom Sunday diving in the waters off Cebu.
"I still love
diving," said the Frenchman, who was abducted by the Abu Sayyaf with 20 others from
the Sipadan diving resort in neighbouring Malaysia and brought to Jolo on April 23.
The four freed hostages were
treated to dinner and songs Sunday by top government negotiator Roberto Aventajado and
Libyan mediator Rajab Azzarouq at a Cebu resort. They presented to Aventajado with some
works of art done in captivity.
The four Europeans were to have
been joined by the two French journalists, who the guerrillas had promised would be
released together.
But negotiator Aventajado said
Abu Sayyaf leader Galib Andang was forced to forgo a Sunday release of journalists
Jean-Jacques Le Garrec and Roland Madura following bloody infighting among rebel factions
over ransom money.
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