Frenchman says Abu Sayyaf trusted them too much

QUEZON CITY, (A report from Reuters) - It was the Stockholm syndrome in reverse between Filipino Muslim rebels and their hostages, according to a French journalist who escaped from his captors.

Jean-Jacques Le Garrec said the Abu Sayaff rebels on the remote jungle-clad island of Jolo had taken such a liking to their two remaining French hostages that he began fearing they would not let him and fellow countryman Roland Madura go.

"We were afraid that in the end they would keep us out of affection," Le Garrec told his employer France-2 television by telephone.

The two French journalists were among 19 hostages held by the rebels. They slipped away from their captors under cover of darkness during the confusion of an assault by government troops and spent Tuesday night in the southern Philippine jungles in pouring rain before they were found by the Philippine military.

Psychiatrists say hostages sometimes become fond of their captors in what they call the Stockholm syndrome. What could be called the Jolo syndrome emerged when rebels sought to make up with their captives, who had withdrawn to a corner of the rebel camp after a row over lack of privacy.

"They got bored very soon and came to see us, saying "No, no, come back with us, we want to chat, we are bored when you are not with us"," Le Garrec said.

He said the rebels helped them cook, fetched water for them and gave them rice.

"We had established a perfectly trusting relationship and they could not in any way imagine that we would play such a trick on them."

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