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May 6, 2000, The Philippine Star, Sayyaf eludes military dragnet,

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May 6, 2000, The Philippine Star, Sayyaf eludes military dragnet,

 

JOLO, Sulu -- Abu Sayyaf members managed to break through a tight military encirclement here and have moved their 21 hostages to another location, senior security officials said yesterday.

 

A combined military and police force has inched closer to the new hideout but ruled out an immediate rescue operation. Sources close to government negotiators also said all 21 hostages are alive. "Government forces are near the hideouts where the captives are being kept," said Sulu police director Col. Candido Casimiro. "We are closing in on the area."

 

He added that "the move is not aimed at a rescue operation" but largely to keep away any reinforcement effort by the Abu Sayyaf. Nine Malaysians, a German family of three, two French nationals, two Finnish men, a South African couple and a Lebanese woman, along with two Filipinos, were abducted from the Malaysian island resort of Sipadan off Borneo on Easter Sunday. The hostages were turned over to the Abu Sayyaf in Jolo.

 

Col. Ernesto de Guzman, chief of staff of the AFP Southern Command (Southcom), said soldiers, including members of the former Muslim rebel group Moro National Liberation Front, had cordoned off suspected lairs of the Abu Sayyaf.

 

Military sources said the rebels were holding the hostages in a cluster of houses in the large town of Talipao comprising mostly coconut plantations. "Before, they were in the center of Bandang village (in Talipao town), but now they have moved to the fringes and possibly assimilated with villagers who are sympathizers of the rebels," a source said.

 

A border scout said he spotted some of the 21 hostages and their abductors in a remote village. Hadji Asda Abdu, a local militia unit chief, told Agence France Press that he saw the hostages outside five huts along a stream in Lumping village.

The village is at the foot of Mt. Dao in Talipao. They had been moved seven kilometers from a previous hideout in Bandang. "I saw some white people but I did not know how many," said Abdu, a 56-year-old former MNLF guerrillas.

 

Abdu pinpointed the exact location of the hostages to the military, which is closing in on the extremists. The tightening of the cordon around the Abu Sayyaf came amid an apparent clampdown on media coverage of the hostage crisis now into its 12th day.

 

Movement of journalists in Jolo has been restricted, a foreign reporter said. "We were unable to move around like before." Southcom has ordered officers in Sulu not to divulge any information on the hostage crisis, sources said. Soldiers have tried to confiscate cameras and videos from media personnel near Talipao, and complaints of harassment by troops included guns being pointed at journalists, a local reporter said.

 

Southcom spokesman Col. Hilario Atendido denied the charges. "There is no news blackout in Sulu province about the hostage situation. What we want is for the media not to communicate with the terrorists because they are using the press for propaganda," he said.

 

"The terrorists are like performers without an audience. They are nothing. They need media attention," he said. For its part, the Department of Foreign Affairs said it was trying to prevent foreign correspondents from going to Sulu and Tawi-Tawi because of security risks.

 

Foreign Affairs Secretary Domingo Siazon Jr. said the military could not guarantee their safety. On accusations that military commanders on the ground did not want to give statements to the media, Atendido said: "Maybe the officials there do not want to be disturbed because they are in the middle of crucial operations."

 

In a related development, several emissaries sent by negotiators attempting to free the hostages were able to visit the Abu Sayyaf kidnappers at their hideout on Thursday, sources said. They said all 21 hostages were in the same house as the kidnappers, according to the sources.

 

The emissaries' account contradicted earlier reports that the hostages had been divided into different groups and that some had either died during a clash with the military or had escaped. On Thursday, Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado said the hostages were being held in five different locations.

 

Contacts between the kidnappers and the negotiators were cut earlier this week by military operations in the area. Hundreds of troops and police formed a tight cordon around the area where the hostages were believed to be held, and a series of clashes erupted on Tuesday and Wednesday as the rebels attempted to escape.

 

The emissaries' report is the first indicating that the kidnappers may have been able to break through the military encirclement. On Wednesday, troops seized the simple bamboo hut where the hostages had been held, but found no one inside. No bloodstains or bullet holes were evident inside the hut, and medicines brought by a doctor on Monday were left behind, the military said.

 

Troops also found three room keys from the Sipadan Island Resort, the Malaysian diving resort from where the hostages were abducted April 23 and taken to Jolo, about one hour away by boat. The rebels had threatened to behead two foreign hostages if the military does not pull its troops away from area, but Mercado said the military will stay put.

 

"The military will never retreat," he said. "If the military withdraws, the Abu Sayyaf will be in control." The kidnappers did not send any message or demands through the emissaries, the sources said. On the basis of the emissaries' report, a team of negotiators sent by chief government negotiator Nur Misuari was to arrive in Jolo later Friday. They will then decide whether to go into the mountains to meet with the kidnappers directly, or to continue indirect contacts through emissaries, they said.

 

Rebel leaders told local radio stations Wednesday that two foreign hostages had died during a clash with the military, one from a stray bullet and the other from a heart attack. One radio station also reported that a rebel  commander had died while trying to recapture two hostages who had escaped.

 

The reports "from our checking are not true," Mercado said. On the nearby island of Basilan, troops continued to search for Abu Sayyaf rebels who are believed to be still holding several people from a separate group of 27 Filipino hostages seized nearly seven weeks ago, the military said. Fifteen of the hostages were rescued by troops Wednesday in a clash with the rebels but four, including a Roman Catholic priest, were killed, reportedly shot in the back of their heads by their captors.

 

Meanwhile, local officials said government negotiators and the Abu Sayyaf have re-established contact and the police will take medicine and food to the captives. An aide of Misuari said emissaries and guerrilla representatives restored contact.

 

Local officials said a convoy carrying food and medicines would travel to an area near a rebel camp, where the extremists are holding the foreign hostages. In other developments yesterday, Vice President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo urged Muslim extremists to release their remaining hostages, especially the schoolchildren, and not to harm anyone of them anymore.

 

She said innocent civilians, like Fr. Rhoel Gallardo and two teachers who were tortured before they were killed, did not need to suffer in the conflict. "Killing innocent civilians will not lead to the peace everybody aspires for in Mindanao," Arroyo said. "Instead, it will only result in the destruction of the region and continued suffering of the people."

 

At the Senate, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said the government should never negotiate with the bandits. He also cautioned Arroyo from having dialogues with the Abu Sayyaf.

 

"There should be no compromise, no negotiations with the bandit group. The government should go after them hammer and tongs. It must be extirpated in accordance with the law," Pimentel said.

 

Foreign gov'ts join forces

 

HELSINKI -- The Finnish, French and German foreign ministers announced yesterday that they would join forces in an attempt to bring the hostage crisis to a peaceful and rapid conclusion.

 

Finnish envoy Holger Rotkirch arrived in Manila yesterday, where he will work with French and German envoys already on the ground. The three countries' foreign ministers -- Finland's Erkku Tuomioja, France's Hubert Vedrine and Germany's Joschka Fischer -- have also sent a joint letter insisting on security to Foreign Affairs Secretary Domingo Siazon Jr. Finland has also instructed its ambassador in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to ask the Organization of Islamic Conference to intervene.

 

 

Meanwhile, French President Jacques Chirac met the parents of one of the two French hostages as his country's foreign minister declared that everything possible would be done to negotiate a way out of the crisis. "Mr. and Madame Loisy are going through a terrible trial," Chirac said. "I told them that everything would be done to make sure the hostages are released as soon as possible, but there are still many uncertainties."

 

He added: "It is for the French authorities -- who are in close contact with all the parties concerned -- a permanent preoccupation." French couple Stephanie Loisy and Sonia Wendling are among a group of 21 hostages taken 11 days ago by the rebels.

 

Vedrine, meanwhile, told reporters in Budapest that his country's "priority" was to ensure that the "Philippine Army doesn't do anything stupid." Verdine insisted that he would work to "find the best means to strike up a  dialogue, a discussion which shows us a way out."

 

The foreign minister added that he did not believe any of the 21 hostages had been killed in recent Army raids against the Muslim guerrillas, though he admitted that "even the Philippine authorities are not entirely sure what's happening." -- By Roel Pareño, with Aurea Calica, Liberty Dones, Ding Cervantes, Efren Danao, wire reports

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