Freed Hostages Thank Libya for Help
By SARAH EL DEEB, Associated Press Writer
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) - Four
former hostages celebrated freedom Tuesday by the sea in Libya while officials in the
Philippines promised to crack down on rebels still holding 19 captives.
``We are now facing the sunrise
after a long time of darkness,'' said Risto Vahanen, one of the four hostages brought to
Libya to thank the government that engineered their release from Abu Sayyaf rebels,
reportedly by paying $1 million in ransom for each.
Vahanen, as well as Finnish,
French and German foreign ministry officials, spoke at an hourlong ceremony arranged by
Libya in a courtyard of the Red Palace, a historic fortress on the Mediterranean bordering
Tripoli's ancient walled quarter.
The ceremony comes three days
after Libya bought the four captives' freedom - and one day after Vahanen said the Abu
Sayyaf rebels, who have been holding hostages in the southern Philippines for months now,
raped some of their female captives.
But speaking to reporters in
Tripoli Tuesday, he denied he had spoken of rape and said their mistreatment included
inappropriate touching of the women.
Libyan officials have played a
prominent role in negotiations with the rebels. Libya paid $10 million to win the freedom
of 10 hostages, including the four released Saturday, according to negotiators in the
Philippines.
The six others, released late
last month, were brought to Tripoli soon afterward for a welcoming ceremony that Libyan
officials turned into an anti-American affair. It was held at the ruins of the house where
Gadhafi's adopted daughter was killed in a 1986 U.S. bombing. There was little hint of
anti-U.S. sentiment Tuesday.
``Now that the sun has risen
again, we are facing a new life that we think will be very rewarding. And in our new life,
we have got a lot of new friends and new parents. We have adopted (Libyan negotiator) Dr.
Rajab Azzarouq as our new father,'' Vahanen said.
German Marc Wallert, Frenchman
Stephane Loisy and Finn Seppo Franti joined Finnish, German and French dignitaries
listening to speeches Tuesday by a representative of the Gadhafi International Association
for Charitable Organizations, a nominally private group headed by Gadhafi's son that led
efforts to win the their freedom.
Almost immediately afterward,
all four former hostages flew out of Libya, headed home at last.
Asked after the ceremony
whether Libya's prestige had been boosted, Seif el-Islam Gadhafi said, ``of course.''
The elder Gadhafi, who did not
attend Tuesday's ceremony, said last week he hopes for improved relations with the United
States. His intervention on behalf of the hostages has been seen as an attempt to repair
relations with the world after years of being branded a sponsor of terrorism and
destabilization.
U.N. sanctions against Libya
were suspended last year when it handed over for trial in the West two of its government
officials accused in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.
Jubilation over the latest
releases was tarnished when Vahanen disclosed to Finnish television Monday that some of
the former women hostages had been raped by their captors. That seemed to have
strengthened the resolve of the Philippines government to deal firmly with the kidnappers.
In an exchange in Finnish on
Monday, Vahanen answered ``yes'' when a reporter for television station MTV3 asked whether
the women had been raped. On Tuesday, he said reporters had misinterpreted his statements.
``The questions were misleading
and also what has been said has been misunderstood,'' he said. ``We were humiliated and
mistreated, all of us, but we didn't report this before we were released because we were
afraid of being abused more or harassed.''
Muslim Libya has longstanding
ties with Muslim rebels in the mostly Catholic Philippines. In addition to negotiating in
previous kidnappings, it has helped build schools and mosques in the impoverished, largely
Muslim south and has been accused of training rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation
Front, a large Muslim rebel group.
Libya has said it offered
development projects to secure the hostages' release and denied the money would go
directly to the rebels.
Rebels abducted three Malaysian
men from a resort island late Sunday. Philippine officials have confirmed the three have
been brought to Abu Sayyaf strongholds on southern Jolo island, where more than 300 armed
men are now guarding the hostages.
Philippines officials indicated
Tuesday they were considering a military attack on the kidnappers. Marines and four navy
ships, including two landing craft, and armored personnel carriers were on standby at a
naval station in southern Zamboanga city. A senior officer said the ships were going to
Jolo island.
The four freed Europeans were
the last foreigners from a group of 21 hostages taken in April from Malaysia. The Abu
Sayyaf are still holding one Filipino captured at the same time, two French television
journalists, and 12 Filipino Christian evangelists.
A separate rebel faction is
holding American Jeffrey Schilling, a 24-year-old Muslim convert from Oakland, Calif., who
was abducted Aug. 28 after he voluntarily visited a rebel camp.
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