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.