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JJuly 5, 2000, The Philippine Star, Talks with Sayyaf in 'delicate stage',

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July 5, 2000, The Philippine Star, Talks with Sayyaf in 'delicate stage',

Negotiations with the Abu Sayyaf have entered a "delicate stage" following the separate "unauthorized entry" of 13 Christian televangelists and a German journalist into the rebels' jungle hideout in Jolo, Sulu, Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora said yesterday. 

Zamora said chief government negotiator Robert Aventajado was expecting results in the talks soon, but the entry of the Christian televangelists led by Wilde Almeda and of Andreas Lorenz of the German magazine Der Spiegel only complicated matters. 

The executive secretary said these visits were not helping the government end the hostage crisis. 

Zamora also frowned on the reported willingness of the Sultan of Sulu to broker the release of all the hostages. 

"It is a good thing that some people are offering to help but the problem is we're in a delicate stage," Zamora said. "We are hoping though that they will put their offers on hold. When the time comes that we would need their help, we hope their offer still stands." 

Officials were keeping their fingers crossed that the Abu Sayyaf would release members of the Jesus Miracle Crusade who were detained when they went to the bandits' lair on Saturday. 

The preachers were trying to convince the gunmen to free the 20 hostages they have been holding for more than two months since their abduction from a Malaysian resort off Borneo on April 23. 

Regarding Lorenz, the German journalist was taken at gunpoint on Sunday by four men believed to be Abu Sayyaf rebels in Patikul, Jolo. 

The journalist was there to cover the kidnapping of three Germans, two French, two Finns, two South Africans, a Lebanese, nine Malaysians and two Filipinos. Zamora said that the government was hoping the preachers would be "allowed to go back to Jolo this afternoon." He also dismissed reports that the gunmen sought P10 million in ransom for the 13. 

Abu Sayyaf leader Ghalib Andang said on Sunday that the preachers had not been detained but they would be staying at the gunmen's hideout for 40 days to fast. However, Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado insisted that the preachers were "being held against their will." 

Zamora ruled out reimposing a military cordon around the Abu Sayyaf camp. The cordon was lifted early in the hostage crisis at the request of government negotiators. 

"At this delicate stage of the negotiations, the last thing you want is a military confrontation," he said. 

Foreign Affairs Secretary Domingo Siazon Jr. said that Manila would negotiate with the kidnappers for Lorenz's release. 

But Mercado warned against paying a ransom. "Paying them is akin to helping the kidnappers. We would only prolong the problem," he said in a radio interview. In the same tone as that of Zamora's, Mercado also let rip at the preachers and the Der Spiegel magazine reporter who he said were "adding to our problems." 

"This German went in independently. It would have been better if he swapped places with one of the ailing German hostages," he said, referring to 57-year-old teacher Renate Wallert, held with her husband and son and who suffers from high blood pressure. 

Intelligence sources in Jolo said the bandits have moved the kidnapped German journalist to Pansol town. The sources said the Der Spiegel writer was taken to Abu Sayyaf leader Tadulan Sajiron's hideout near Patikul town on Monday as his abductors tried to work out an agreement to split any ransom proceeds. 

However, no deal was struck and Lorenz has since been taken to two other Abu Sayyaf leaders, Khadafy Janjalani and Abu Sabaya, said the sources, who asked not be named. 

But an Abu Sayyaf spokesman, Abu Ahmad, denied that his group had abducted Lorenz. 

"We deny any involvement in the kidnapping of the German journalist," Ahmad told radio station dxRZ in Zamboanga City. 

"We still don't know which group is responsible for his disappearance," he said. German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said the kidnapping complicates efforts to free the hostages. 

"That does not simplify matters," Fischer said after talks with European Union secretary general Javier Solana. 

Solana and Fischer both pledged full support to efforts to free the hostages. In a related development, French President Jacques Chirac was to meet the parents of Sonia Welding, one of the 20 hostages. 

"We are going to meet him -- my wife, daughter and I -- at about 12 noon," Wendling said from his home at Dresenheim in the region. 

Chirac had vowed "everything will be done" to free the hostages. 

Government officials, meanwhile, allowed food rations for the hostages to resume and an emissary left for an Abu Sayyaf hideout to deliver nine boxes of combat rations along with a package for Lebanese hostage Marie Moarbes sent by her government. 

The humanitarian corridor was shut down last month as formal negotiations for the hostages' release broke down. 

The intelligence sources said the condition of the Western hostages had since gotten "worse" and were reduced to eating tubers and cassava. -- With reports from Roel Pareño, AP, AFP 

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