April 24, 2000, The Washington Post / Seattle Times, Muslim rebels in Philippines claim they abducted tourists, by Rajiv Chandrasekaran,

April 24, 2000, The Washington Post / Seattle Times, Muslim rebels in Philippines claim they abducted tourists, by Rajiv Chandrasekaran,

JAKARTA - A Philippines rebel group today claimed to be behind the abduction of 20 people yesterday, most of them foreign tourists, from a resort island off Malaysia's Borneo coast.

The hostages were taken away on fishing boats. Malaysian Defense Minister Najib Razak said an air-and-sea search operation located the boats carrying the captive tourists, and that the hostages apparently had not been harmed.

An American couple escaped by refusing to swim out to the kidnappers' boats and then hiding overnight in nearby bushes on lush Sipadan Island in eastern Malaysia.

Philippines Defense Minister Orlando Mercado said the gunmen and their hostages appeared to be sailing for the southern Philippines, where Muslim rebels on the island of Basilan are seeking the release of militants jailed in the United States.

"Our group is behind the abduction of the foreigners (in Malaysia), and there are still a lot of surprises for the government if they won't listen to us," said Abu Ahmad, spokesman for the Philippine rebel group Abu Sayyaf.

Abu Sayyaf is fighting for an independent Islamic state in the predominantly Catholic Philippines.

But Philippine officials quickly expressed skepticism.

"We don't just jump and believe the Abu Sayyaf immediately," Mercado said.

Philippine national police Deputy Director Gen. Reynaldo Wycoco told reporters that the kidnappers spoke Tausug, a language spoken in parts of the southern Philippines, but not on Basilan.

Abu Sayyaf rebels took more than 50 hostages last month, many of them children from two schools, and demanded that the U.S. government free Ramzi Yousef, who was convicted of masterminding the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York, and Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, who was convicted of conspiring to blow up several New York City landmarks. The rebels, who later freed a number of the 50 captives, said last week they had beheaded two of the hostages to press their demands, which have received no response from the U.S. government.

Eyewitnesses said Mary Murphy - one of the Americans who escaped - didn't know how to swim, and her husband, James, told the assailants they'd have to shoot him if they forced her into the water.

The Murphys, both 51, of Rochester, N.Y., arrived in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, last night.

James Murphy, an executive for Eastman Kodak in Sydney, Australia, said they had not slept since Sunday night but were otherwise fine.

The hostages forced onto the fishing boats were two French tourists, three Germans, two South Africans, two Finns and one Lebanese, as well as a Filipino worker and nine Malaysians, authorities said.

Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.