Gunmen ferry new Malaysian captives into
southern Philippines
MANILA, Sept 12 (AFP) - Armed
gunmen kidnapped three people from a Malaysian diving resort and transported them to the
southern Philippines just as Manila bid farewell Monday to four freed European hostages
The Europeans flew home via
Libya after more than four months of captivity.
Armed forces vice chief of
staff Lieutenant General Jose Calimlim said the Malaysian captives were taken to Sulu
province in the southern Philippines where Abu Sayyaf Muslim gunmen are holding 19
hostages -- two French journalists, an American tourist and 16 Filipinos.
"We have received reports
that the victims are now in Sulu and they are moving from one place to another,"
Calimlin told local television station
He did not identify the
abductors but government sources in the south said the Malaysians were taken to a village
called Mabahay near the town of Talipao in Jolo island where the Abu Sayyaf guerillas are
holding the 19 hostages.
"They were brought by a
group led by an Abu Noman at 5.30 p.m.Monday)," a source in Jolo said.
Malaysia's Deputy Premier
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said in Kuala Lumpur earlier Monday that armed robbers raided a
diving resort off Malaysia's Sabah state in Borneo and fled by boat with three Malaysian
staff.
Abdullah, quoted by Bernama
news agency, said police had told him the gang which struck Sunday evening might be
foreigners and that the Malay dialect they used was similar to the language spoken by
people in the nearby southern Philippines.
The four men, each carrying an
M-16 rifle, arrived by boat Sunday evening at Pandanan island and fired two shots in the
air.
Eleven of the staff fled into
the jungle. When they returned five hours later they found three men missing.
Pandanan, adjacent to the sea
border with the Philippines, is about 35 minutes by boat from Sipadan island, where nine
Malaysians and 12 foreigners were seized by Abu Sayyaf guerrillas on April 23.
All but one of the Sipadan
captives have been released so far but the Abu Sayyaf abducted more people, including
journalists covering the hostage crisis.
The last of the Sipadan foreign
captives, Finns Risto Vahanen and Seppo Fraenti, Frenchman Stephane Loisy and German Marc
Wallert were released on Saturday and left by a Libyan jet Monday for Tripoli enroute home
carrying the bitter memories while in 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," Vahanen said before leaving the Philippines.
The four, who had already
landed in Tripoli Monday, were freed after 140 days in captivity following a pledge by
Libya of "development aid" in the Abu Sayyaf strongholds and a reported ransom
worth millions of dollars paid on the side.
Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi is
expected to welcome the four in Tripoli before they head on to their home countries.
Libyan negotiator Rajab
Azzarouq told reporters, as the jet made a brief stopover in the United Arab Emirates,
that he would return to the Philippines to free "in two or three days" the two
French journalists.
French journalists Jean-Jacques
Le Garrec and Roland Madura, abducted in Jolo in July while covering the hostage crisis,
were stranded due to factional fighting among the Abu Sayyaf hours before the handover of
the European captives.
Intelligence sources said the
fighting was due to a dispute over ransom spoils.
About 600 civilians have fled
two villages in Abu Sayyaf territory fearing further factional clashes, police and
military sources said Monday.
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