Military steps up pressure on RP kidnappers

Military steps up pressure on RP kidnappers

JOLO, Philippines (Agencies): The Philippine military on Friday stepped up pressure on extremists group holding Western and Asian hostages on a southern island as negotiators pressed on with efforts to peacefully resolve the 104-day-old crisis.

Two OV-10 planes conducted a 30-minute "persuasion flight" over Jolo island, Sulu province, 1,000 kilometers south of Manila, for the first time since the hostage drama began more than three months ago.

A police intelligence source said the planes mainly flew over Talipao town, where the Western and Asian hostages were now being kept in one hideout by the Abu Sayyaf extremists.

"The persuasion flights are apparently aimed at adding pressure on the Abu Sayyaf to free their hostages," the police source told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA). "It's a show of force."

The official, who requested anonymity, said the military was also planning to re-deploy one battalion of marines to the island. The army has already dispatched 400 soldiers to four checkpoints in Talipao and the nearby town of Patikul.

Police and soldiers set up roadblocks at entry points to Jolo town, checking vehicles for firearms to try to prevent members of the Abu Sayyaf group from entering.

Senior Superintendent Candido Casimiro, provincial police chief, said: "We have tightened security against terrorists who attack hapless civilians, especially in Jolo town.

"There is a threat by kidnap-for-ransom groups to abduct children of affluent families studying here."

Other potential kidnap targets, such as foreign and local journalists covering the hostage crisis, have largely left after the army said it could not guarantee their safety.

Jolo town police chief Mohammad Nur Alamea and military official Col. Rasulan Salapuddin separately said authorities had also banned anyone but government security forces from wearing camouflage.

Military fatigues are popular among local residents, including kidnap gangs.

The hostage crisis began on April 23 when 21 foreign and local hostages were seized by the Abu Sayyaf from the resort of Sipadan, controlled by Malaysia, and brought to Jolo island by boat.

The rebels separated the Westerners from the Asians in June to prevent a military rescue operation, but recently re-united them in a move believed to be in preparation for their release.

Several other foreign and local hostages, including journalists covering the crisis, were later seized.

Six Malaysians, two Germans and five Filipino hostages have since been released amid reports of hefty ransoms.

Singapore Foreign Minister S. Jayakumar has blamed the media for hampering efforts to resolve the hostage crisis in the southern Philippines, a senior Filipino diplomat said Friday.

Philippine Foreign Undersecretary Lauro Baja said the subject was raised in discussions on the effects of international media on security issues during the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in Bangkok last month.

The press coverage of the abduction by Abu Sayyaf Muslim extremists of more than a dozen foreign and local hostages on southern Jolo island showed the negative impact of the media in the age of globalization, Baja quoted Jayakumar as saying.

The press coverage had "complicated negotiations and limited government courses of actions and options," Jayakumar said.

In Beirut, a leading newspaper launched a campaign on Friday to collect ransom money for a Lebanese-born woman held hostage by Philippine rebels for more than three months.

An-Nahar published a full-page appeal with the headline "Contribute to her rescue" placed above a picture of an exhausted-looking Marie Moarbis standing near a masked rebel.

The advertisement said An-Nahar had already put in $10,000 into a special bank account.

Moarbis, who was granted French citizenship during her captivity, is one of 21 people kidnapped from a Malaysian resort island on April 23 by separatist Abu Sayyaf rebels.