Negotiators back on Jolo island to resume talks

Negotiators back on Jolo island to resume talks

JOLO, Philippines (Agencies): Philippine negotiators seeking
the release of 40 mostly foreign hostages held by separatist
group sailed back to the southern island of Jolo on Wednesday
after a month-long break in talks.

"We are here to pursue negotiations and we are very hopeful
that we might succeed in releasing some of them," presidential
assistant secretary Farouk Hussain told reporters after arriving
with Libyan envoy Rajab Azzarouq.

"We wish we will see them soon free and sound," said Azzarouq,
a former Libyan ambassador to the Philippines.

Chief government negotiator Roberto Aventajado said on Tuesday
rebel chief Galib Andang had called him by phone to say that the
fundamentalist Abu Sayyaf was ready to resolve the nearly three-
month-long hostage crisis.

Aventajado, who remains in nearby Zamboanga city awaiting
developments in Jolo, said the rebels also told him they were
ready to present their "bottom-line demands."

Hours after the Philippine negotiators sailed back to Jolo,
three European foreign ministers announced on Wednesday that they
would fly to Manila to press the Philippine government in person
to secure the release of the hostages held by separatist rebels,
French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine said on Wednesday.

Vedrine said he and Germany's Joschka's Fischer would team up
on Thursday evening in Manila with Finland's Erkki Tuomioja for
meetings with Philippine officials and government hostage
negotiators.

France, Germany and Finland are the three European Union
countries with citizens being held captive on the southern island
of Jolo.

The hostages originally totaled 21 but the number has
burgeoned after the rebels detained 13 Filipino evangelists,
three French television crew and a German reporter who tried to
see the captives earlier this month.

A Malaysian forest ranger among the original 21 abducted from
a Malaysian diving resort on April 23 has been freed. The group
includes eight other Malaysians, three Germans, two French
nationals, two Finns, two Filipinos and a Lebanese.

The guerrillas are also holding two Filipino school teachers
and a teenage boy abducted on nearby Basilan island in March.

Faced with tough rebel demands, Manila suspended talks in
early June, leaving only local emissaries to keep up contact with
the rebels.

Officials earlier said the Abu Sayyaf wanted US$1.0 million
per hostage. Although Manila says it is opposed to paying ransom,
officials have said they believe the issue will boil down to a
question of money and how much.

The government has rejected the rebels' main political demand
-- the establishment of an Islamic state in the south of the
mainly Catholic Philippines.

Hussain said the government panel would seek the release of
everybody but "of course, we will give priority to those who were
snatched earlier", referring to the hostages seized in Malaysia.

Speculation was rife that the rebels might free at least one
or some hostages shortly as a "gift" to provincial governor
Abdusakur Tan, a member of Manila's panel, who is celebrating his
birthday on Thursday. Andang had worked for Tan before he fled to
the hills.

Meanwhile, the Philippine government rejected on Wednesday
demands by extremist group holding 40 hostages to pull security
forces out of territory regained from the country's biggest
separatist group.

The Abu Sayyaf had warned it would harm 13 Christian preachers
among hostages being held in the southern Philippines if
government troops were not withdrawn from areas once held by the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) by July 17.

Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado said on Wednesday the Abu
Sayyaf could not dictate the movements of the Philippine
military.

"The military operations are not to be determined by the Abu
Sayyaf. It is not to be influenced by calls of the terrorists
that we pull out," Mercado told reporters here.

The Abu Sayyaf warned on Monday of "negative repercussions"
against flamboyant preacher Wilde Almeda and his 12 followers
from the Jesus Miracle Crusade if troops did not pull out from
the MILF headquarters and other rebel bases captured by the
government.