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August 17, 2000, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Hostage deal Okd by Estrada, EU, Libya,

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August 17, 2000, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Hostage deal Okd by Estrada, EU, Libya,


JOLO, Sulu-A new breakthrough yesterday in a nearly four-month long hostage crisis was the product of collaboration between President Estrada, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and the president of the 15-member European Union, the Inquirer has learned. 

"There's no other way," a senior Palace quoted the President as saying of the decision to accept Libya's offer to try to end the drawn-out hostage drama. The official said the President was in constant contact with the two leaders to discuss the government's strategy in resolving the crisis. 

Thus, in a deal bankrolled by Libya and approved by Manila, Abu Sayyaf gunmen yesterday released a Filipino hostage and were expected to free 19 others, mostly foreigners, by today. "This is like a dream. I did not expect to be the first one to go," Lucrecia Dablo, 35, said after she was freed from nearly four months in captivity. 

Dablo, a cook at Malaysia's Sipadan diving resort where the Abu Sayyaf abducted 21 Asians and Westerners on April 23, emerged sobbing in the rain from the kidnappers' camp, to be led away by top government negotiator Robert Aventajado. 

"You were surprised, weren't you? You thought you would be left behind," Aventajado told Dablo, who smiled despite being drenched by the heavy rain. Libya played a key role in the negotiations, reportedly agreeing to foot the entire bill for the release of the hostages. 

Seeking to curry favor with the West, which regards him as a pariah, Gadhafi has put forward a proposed deal under which the Western hostages would walk free in exchange for substantial development aid to Jolo.  Government mediators, led by Libyan envoy Rajab Azzarouq, spent several hours with the kidnappers yesterday. Sources close to the negotiators told journalists the mediators delivered an unspecified amount of ransom to the Abu Sayyaf. Dablo's release came moments after government emissaries had indicated that only two hostages, both French nationals, were to be freed following the payment of the ransom. 

Manila gave Libya the go-signal to negotiate with the Abu Sayyaf, Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon Jr. said yesterday, indicating another departure from the government's original official policy against foreign intervention. But Siazon said Libya's involvement was not a form of interference in a domestic security problem since it had Manila's approval. 

"No, this is not really interference because it is with the knowledge of the Philippine government, of the chief negotiator. From the beginning, former Ambassador Azzarouq has been involved in this," he said. Libya and France Siazon said the government acknowledged Azzarouq's role in negotiating the release of former hostages. 

"It is a situation which is not normal, this hostage situation. We have been trying to resolve it peacefully by getting the hostages out safely and as quickly as possible. It seems that (Libya's involvement) may prove to be a successful way of resolving the problem," Siazon said. 

He said Germany, France and Finland probably agreed to Libya's plan to secure the release of their nationals among the hostages. "I think, in fact, that 
they (Libyan officials) were even probably asked (by the European governments)," he said. In fact, a Paris newspaper said that Gadhafi had been negotiating "political compensation" with France in return for his country's intermediary role in the hostage crisis, according to Agence France Presse. 

Gadhafi sets price 

The investigative newspaper Le Canard Enchaine said that "France had asked Libya to pay a ransom in its place," in exchange for "helping Gadhafi's Libya to make a return to the diplomatic stage." The paper said a high-ranking French foreign ministry official visited Tripoli earlier this month, promising "a strong political gesture" if Libya helped secure the release of the captives. 

The report said Libya had set its own price, including inclusion in a Euro- Mediterranean summit scheduled to be held in November and hosted by France, current holders of the rotating European Union presidency. The paper said Gadhafi was also demanding that France use its weight in the United Nations to help lift the economic sanctions against Libya. 

Libyan plane 

A chartered plane from Libya was waiting in Manila to pick up the Western hostages and take them to Tripoli to meet with Gadhafi. Lebanese and South African ministers arrived in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Tuesday to receive their citizens. Siazon said that the plane had been sent not by the Libyan government but by a foundation run by Gadhafi's son Saif Al-islam. 

"The foundation is very much involved," he said. The foundation was the same one reported to have offered $25 million in exchange for the freedom of all the hostages. Philippine and Libyan officials had also claimed that Azzarouq was not sent by Gadhafi but by his son's foundation. 

Azzarouq has denied reports Libya was willing to pay $25 million. Instead, he has insisted that his country would fund development projects in Mindanao. Planes chartered by Libya have also ferried officials and scores of journalists from Lebanon and South Africa to Tripoli to cover the release. One French hostage, Marie Moarbes, is originally Lebanese. 

Hitches 

The nine Western captives from Sipadan were supposed to have all been freed yesterday under the Libyan deal, but Aventajado said troop movements in the area had spooked the kidnappers. He said, however, that he expected the Abu Sayyaf gunmen to go ahead with the release of all 19 remaining hostages today. "We will work it out tomorrow," he said. 

The hitches involved arrangements for the hostages' turnover, including security, rather than substantive issues, negotiators said. Aventajado, negotiator Parouk Mohammad Hussin and reporters covering the hostage crisis had waited at the Army camp after Azzarouq left for the Abu Sayyaf camp at around 11:30 a.m. 

At around 4 p.m., Dablo was taken to a military base at Tagbak, a village on Jolo island about 10 kilometers from where the remaining hostages--five French nationals, one Franco-Lebanese woman, two Finns, two Germans, three Malaysians, four Filipinos and two South Africans--were being held. 

Fried noodles 

"Aida thought they would leave her behind, but she got out first," Aventajado said, referring to Dablo by her nickname as they later shared a meal of fried noodles and seafood at the provincial governor's residence. He  later flew her to Zamboanga City. At the military base, Dablo, pale and still frightened after 117 days in captivity, could barely answer any questions from the media, except one: How do you feel now? 

"Masayang-masaya (Very happy)," she said in a voice choked with emotion. Dablo was taken out of the hostages' camp early yesterday morning. She said she had not heard from her co-captives since. "All I know is that they were praying for me," she said. 

A source from Sulu who was also tapped as one of the local emissaries in previous negotiations said Abu Sayyaf leaders were having second thoughts about releasing the nine Western hostages from Sipadan. Abu Sayyaf leader Galib Andang " is still trying to extend his luck by asking for (more) money as ransom. You know (the kidnappings) are for money, not for any political reasons," he said. 

Projects 

Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora said the negotiators had convinced kidnappers to accept "social development projects and livelihood projects." The Abu Sayyaf originally demanded $1 million each for the hostages, as well as a separate Muslim state. The gunmen have reportedly received at least P245 million for 13 hostages released before Dablo. 

As a result of the latest ransom payment, the Abu Sayyaf agreed to free at least two of the five French citizens, the sources said, without identifying who would be freed. Two of the five French citizens, mechanical engineers Sonia Wendling and her boyfriend Stephane Loisy, were abducted from Sipadan. The other three are television journalists taken captive while covering the crisis last month. 

For years, Libya has mediated between Moro guerrillas and the Philippine government and helped build schools and mosques in the impoverished South. It also has been accused of training rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Reports from Noralyn Mustafa, Alexander Young and Julie Alipala-Inot, PDI Mindanao Bureau; Dona Pazzibugan and Donna Cueto; AFP, AP 

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