Hostages could be freed very soon, says RP official
Hostages could be freed very soon, says RP official
JOLO, Philippines (AP): Philippine troops attacked an area on a remote island where Muslim rebels are believed to be holding an American hostage and hope to rescue him very soon, a government spokesman said on Thursday.
Presidential Press Secretary Ricardo Puno said the military were able to identify the area on Jolo island where the Abu Sayyaf rebels are holding Jeffrey Schilling, of Oakland, California, and began moving in Thursday afternoon.
"There is a clear identification of the location," he said. "There are hopeful and promising signs that they may be able to get something accomplished in the very, very near future."
A separate rebel faction led by Ghalib "Robot" Andang is believed to be holding 16 other hostages, although a Cabinet official admitted on Thursday that the military has lost track of three Malaysian hostages.
Two French journalists escaped from the rebels on Tuesday night, leaving Schilling, the three Malaysians and 13 Filipinos still in captivity.
Puno said the military is pursuing Andang's group in another area of Jolo and that action there also "seems to be real and very imminent."
Schilling, 24, who converted to Islam while studying at the University of California at Berkeley, visited an Abu Sayyaf camp on Aug. 28 with his Filipino wife, a second cousin of guerrilla spokesman Abu Sabaya.
He was seized by rebel leaders after they reportedly became suspicious of him during an argument over religion and politics. His wife was not abducted.
Earlier Thursday, a radio station broadcast an interview with Schilling that was the first confirmation he was still alive since thousands of troops launched a rescue assault on Saturday. "I am alive," Schilling told the Radio Mindanao Network. "I am fine."
Schilling appealed to the government to halt the rescue effort so negotiations for his release could resume.
In Oakland, Schilling's mother, Carol, said she was relieved her son was alive and well. "I am very worried about his safety right now," she said. "I hope that he is released soon."
President Joseph Estrada said on Wednesday he would halt the attack if all the hostages are freed.
Estrada portrayed the escape of the two French journalists as vindication of his decision to use force against the rebels.
But the two journalists - Jean-Jacques Le Garrec and Roland Madura of France-2 television - criticized the government's handling of the hostage crisis after returning to France on Thursday.
"It's impossible to imagine a military operation that could have gotten us out of there," Le Garrec said. He called the military assault "a criminal operation" that was endangering the island's innocent civilians and legitimizing the rebel group.
The two men were seized July 9 while visiting a rebel camp to interview other hostages.
The military announced on Thursday that 18 rebels were confirmed dead and 42 other deaths had been reported but were not confirmed. Six government troops were injured in the six days of fighting, it said.
Military officials initially estimated that the assault would be finished in six days.
Four civilians who were earlier reported dead were actually only injured, military spokesman Gen. Generoso Senga said.
However, wounded civilians interviewed at Jolo's hospital said they had witnessed the deaths of at least three other villagers shot by the military.
A doctor, Ramla Jailani, said she was asking the military to be allowed to go to restricted remote areas because of unconfirmed reports of many casualties there.
Senga said more than 12,000 civilians have fled their homes to escape the fighting.
The separatist Abu Sayyaf have kidnapped scores of people since March. Most have been released, with Libya and Malaysia reportedly paying more than US$15 million for 19 foreigners. Estrada's decision to attack the rebels has been widely supported by Filipinos.