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.