May 23, 2000, The Philippine Star, Sayyaf snubs talks with Aventajado, by Roel Pareño,

PATIKUL, Sulu - Hundreds of policemen backed by armored personnel carriers stood guard in a jungle here yesterday, but Abu Sayyaf leaders snubbed what was to have been the first talks on freedom for the 21 foreign and local hostages they snatched from a resort in Malaysia nearly a month ago.

Chief negotiator Robert Aventajado waited for four hours at the meeting site, but the Muslim extremists' leaders who had issued two political conditions for the release of their captives did not show up.

The extremists earlier sent a letter setting two political conditions for their hostages' release: a separate Islamic state in Mindanao and the creation of a commission to investigate allegations of maltreatment of Filipino Muslims in the Malaysian state of Sabah.

Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora said they are closely evaluating the rebels' conditions which many here considered as an "old demand." "The demands had been communicated to a Cabinet committee on security and they are now being studied," he said.

The rebels did not seek any ransom in their letter, although President Estrada has reiterated his stand against paying any centavo for the hostages' freedom. Some 500 members of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force have taken up positions in Tuup village in this town where the hostages are being held.

More troops were expected to follow later yesterday for the expected talks at the village school which was supposed to be the venue for the negotiations. The area is a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, and the site of a notorious guerrilla massacre of an Army general and his officers more than 20 years ago.

Aventajado earlier expressed optimism on the possibility of the talks, though he remained non-committal. "We'll see," he said. The chief negotiator waited from 12:20 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. before finally deciding to pack up and reschedule the meeting.

Five Abu Sayyaf leaders were supposed to attend the meeting, but none of them showed up. Aventajado pointed out that he needed to talk to all five. "I wouldn't want to meet with just two or three of them," he said. "So we decided to rest the negotiation for another day," he said.

The talks was supposed to be the first face-to-face encounter between the government and the rebel group since the hostages were seized from the Malaysian resort of Sipadan last April 23. Four government negotiators accompanied by former Libyan ambassador Rajub Azzarouq will meet the five Abu Sayyaf leaders to discuss the release of the hostages.

The hostages included nine Malaysians, three Germans, two French nationals, two Finns, two South Africans, two Filipinos and a Lebanese. A Malaysian hostage reportedly said that they had been moved for the third time to a house near a grocery shop, a sharp improvement from a few weeks ago where television footage showed them huddled in a forest clearing.

The Malaysian hostage, Ken Fong, gave their latest location in a scribbled letter handed to a Malaysian medical team that saw them Friday. The mission had been criticized by local authorities who alleged that Malaysian envoy Mohammad Arshad Manzoor Hussain had taken advantage of the event to hold unilateral negotiations with the rebels. The envoy has denied the accusation.

Protocol set

Authorities said yesterday that to prevent misunderstandings between parties concerned with the safety of the hostages, all foreign humanitarian assistance will have to be channeled through the government.

Press Secretary Ricardo Puno said foreign missions would also have to go through Aventajado if they wanted to hold talks with the Abu Sayyaf group. "In retrospect, it should have been done better. So for that reason, I think Secretary Aventajado has been given full authority to coordinate all these efforts. From now on, everything is going to go through him," Puno said. Puno and Foreign Affairs Secretary Domingo Siazon has allayed the concerns of other local officials on the visit of the Malaysian envoy, saying Arshad had not gone to negotiate but merely to facilitate a visit of the Malaysian Red Crescent medical team to the hostages.

"I will acknowledge that the coordination on the side of government should improve a little bit more," he said. Puno added, though, that "it's unfair to say the Malaysian government was interfering. The truth of the matter is the Malaysian ambassador was coordinating with Secretary Siazon."

Siazon has refused to comment further on the controversy. Aventajado, meanwhile, said that his priority will be to secure the release of Renate Wallert, a 57-year-old German housewife suffering from hypertension. Wallert's husband and son are also among the hostages.

Officials in this island said it was likely the rebels would agree to the request but stressed nothing was certain. A German doctor and other officials were expected to arrive here yesterday and two teams from the United Nations have been sent to determine the real situation in the area. -- With reports from AFP, AP, Reuters, Marichu Villanueva, Aurea Calica, Jerry Botial