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July 17, 2000, Seattle Times / AP, Philippine rebels release hostage, by Jim Gomez,

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Renate Wallert

July 17, 2000, Seattle Times / AP, Philippine rebels release hostage, by Jim Gomez, 

JOLO, Philippines - The ailing German woman stepped slowly from a van, a Muslim scarf over her head and a rice sack in her hands containing her belongings.

"Mrs. Wallert, I'm Secretary Aventajado," said the Philippines' chief hostage negotiator. "You're free now."

The two embraced, and Renate Wallert, 57, began crying.

Wallert's 85 days of captivity with a group of Muslim rebels in a Philippine jungle ended yesterday, her 34th wedding anniversary, and she had been forced to leave behind her husband, Werner, and son, Marc.

"I'm sure your husband understands why you have to be separated today," Robert Aventajado told Wallert.

She is the first European released by the Abu Sayyaf rebels from a group of 21 mostly foreign hostages abducted from a Malaysian diving resort on April 23. Two Malaysians were freed earlier.

Officials said no ransom was paid.

Renate Wallert has suffered from high blood pressure and anxiety while being held in the jungle, according to doctors who visited her at the Abu Sayyaf camp on Jolo island.

Emissaries from the Abu Sayyaf camp brought Wallert to a village where she was met by Aventajado, taken by armored personnel carrier to Jolo, the island's capital, and flown to Manila, where she boarded a plane home to Germany.

In the past week, Ghalib Andang, an Abu Sayyaf commander holding most of the hostages, has demanded government assistance for various development projects on Jolo. A government negotiator said Andang has dropped an earlier demand for the creation of an independent nation for the Philippines' Muslim minority, but is still asking $1 million for each European hostage.

However, three other Abu Sayyaf leaders have clashed with him over the large ransom demand and withdrawal of the demand for an Islamic state, officials say.

Abu Sayyaf is the smaller of two groups fighting for a separate Islamic state. The government has seized most of the camps of the larger Moro Islamic Liberation Front since April.

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