Manila blames rebels for Sipadan abduction

Manila blames rebels for Sipadan abduction

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AFP): Members of a separatist group have brought 21 hostages abducted from a Malaysian resort to a southern Philippines stronghold and are reportedly seeking a two million dollar-plus ransom, officials said on Wednesday.

Philippine Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado said the captives were being held in the town of Talipao on Jolo island by a unit of the Abu Sayyaf, confirming for the first time the group's claim they were behind Sunday's kidnapping.

The captors had abducted three Germans, two French nationals, two South Africans, two Finns and a Lebanese woman as well as nine Malaysians and two Filipinos from the Malaysian resort island of Sipadan off Borneo.

Philippine President Joseph Estrada, who has expressed concern over the hostage-taking, on Wednesday appointed Muslim leader Nur Misuari to spearhead negotiations with the captors, presidential spokesman Ricardo Puno said in Manila.

Misuari, the governor of a Muslim autonomous region in the south, said the gunmen and some of the Caucasian hostages had been spotted on Jolo island.

"Only the whites are there. I don't know where the others were taken," said Misuari, a former guerrilla leader whose group signed a peace treaty with the government in 1996.

Mercado said the captors were headed by Galib Andang, Mujib Susukan and a commander Abu, blamed for the kidnapping late last year of two Hong Kong men and a Malaysian working for a seaweed farm in the southern island group of Tawi-Tawi.

"These personalities are Abu Sayyaf ... who are known for lawlessness," Mercado said at a news conference here after a brief visit to Jolo.

A relative of one of the hostages told AFP the gunmen were seeking a ransom of more than US$2 million for their release. Filipino officials could not immediately confirm this.

Mercado said the captives were divided into groups and were being moved around by their captors, a tactic used in past Abu Sayyaf kidnappings to thwart rescue attempts.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon said the government was not planning any military operation to free the hostages.

"We are in a negotiation mode. You are in a stage where you are trying to wait for contacts from the other side," Siazon said.

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian police Malaysian police said 10 suspects have been arrested over the Sipadan raid.