Chronology of RP hostage crisis
Chronology of RP hostage crisis
MANILA (AFP): A chronology of the Abu Sayyaf hostage crisis in
the southern Philippines this year following the group's latest
abduction of at least 21 Filipinos and the beheading of four
captives.
May 27: Abu Sayyaf gunmen raid the Dos Palmas resort off the
western Philippine island of Palawan and seize 20 hostages,
including three Americans -- missionary couple Martin and Gracia
Burnham from Kansas and Peru-born Californian, Guillermo Sobero.
President Gloria Arroyo rules out paying any ransom and unleashes
the military against the kidnappers.
June 1: Clashes erupt between government troops and the
kidnappers, who are seen in Tuburan town in Basilan island, some
480 kilometers (about 300 miles) from Palawan.
June 2: An Abu Sayyaf "suicide squad" takes over a hospital and
church in Lamitan, the second largest town in Basilan, holding as
many as 200 hostages. Four of the hostages from the Palawan
resort escape.
June 3: Five more hostages are recovered alive as the Abu Sayyaf
break out of a military cordon and flee the hospital, taking four
hospital staff as human shields. Lamitan officials later say they
found the bodies of two of the Palawan hostages killed by the Abu
Sayyaf.
June 7: Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sabaya gives Manila a 72-hour
deadline to bring in former Malaysian senator Sairin Karno and
businessman Yusuf Hamdan as negotiators, failing which they would
behead the Americans. They also asked military operations against
them be suspended. Arroyo promptly rejects the demand.
June 11: Arroyo gives in to a rebel demand for two Malaysian
negotiators, but refuses to call off the military offensive,
after Abu Sabaya issues a final two-and-a-half hour deadline to
behead the Americans. The gunmen seize 15 more Filipino captives
in Lantawan town in a "diversionary" tactic.
June 12: Abu Sabaya claims his group has beheaded U.S. hostage
Sobero and later peddles video footage of his supposed execution,
but gets no takers.
June 16: A negotiator returns from the Abu Sayyaf hideout with
two Filipino hostages. The freed captives say American Guillermo
Sobero was separated from the group and believed to have been
executed.
June 23: The headless bodies of two Filipino plantation workers
are found outside the Basilan capital of Isabela. The bodies of
two unidentified Filipinos are found in Tuburan.
June 29: President Arroyo announces she has formally asked the
U.S. government to help track down the Abu Sayyaf with their
surveillance expertise.
July 3: Two Filipino hostages are freed allegedly in exchange for
a six million peso (US$115,384) ransom.
July 19: Police raid the home of a Muslim rebel chief-turned
regional governor Nur Misuari and seize hundreds of rounds of
ammunition and grenades amid suspicion his aide is selling
weapons to the Abu Sayyaf.
Aug 3: Police say Abu Sayyaf guerrillas take at least 21 new
Filipino hostages and behead four of them in a midnight raid a
day earlier in Lamitan.