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November 14, 2002, Sun Star, Sayyaf demands P16M for 7 hostages,

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November 14, 2002, Sun Star, Sayyaf demands P16M for 7 hostages,

ZAMBOANGA -- Abu Sayyaf rebels are demanding P16 million in ransom for seven hostages, including three Indonesians, being held somewhere in Mindanao, officials said Wednesday. But the military said the demand was rejected and that troops have been ordered to intensify efforts to track down the gunmen. The ransom demand was relayed to Gov. Yusop Jikiri of Jolo, an Abu Sayyaf stronghold in the south where it is believed the hostages are being held in a jungle camp. 
  
"We will not negotiate with the terrorists and we will not pay ransom. There is a strict no-ransom policy," Armed Forces spokesman Eduardo Purificacion said. Abu Sayyaf rebels are using the hostages as "human shields against pursuing soldiers" as they transfer from one hideout to another, Purificacion said. "Troops have difficulty in tracking down the kidnappers and their hostages because they are highly mobile. The jungle terrain is thick and visibility is only 10 meters," he said. 
  
The Indonesians were seized in June from a coal barge passing through the southern Philippines, while the four Filipinas, who are members of the Jehovah's Witness religious group, were kidnapped in August. The Abu Sayyaf was founded in the early 1990s by Islamic firebrand Abdurajak Janjalani, who was killed in a gun battle with Philippine authorities in 1998. His youngest brother Khadaffy Janjanjalani took over his post as the self-styled Islamic fighters slipped into banditry and kidnappings. 
  
Abu Sayyaf militants were also partly blamed for a wave of bomb attacks that killed over a dozen people, including a US soldier, in the southern Philippines this month. Manila and Washington have both linked the Abu Sayyaf to the al-Qaeda network of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden. US Special Forces early this year were deployed in Mindanao to train Filipino soldiers to combat the Abu Sayyaf. About 300 US troops are expected to return to the Philippines in February for the next phase of the joint anti-terrorism campaign, officials said. AFP

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