Report: Hostages friends with rebels

Report: Hostages friends with rebels

SINGAPORE (AP): Three Malaysians held hostage for four months by Muslim kidnappers in the southern Philippines remain friends with their former kidnappers and have regular contact with them, a local newspaper reported on Sunday.

Diving instructor Ken Fong and forestry officials Basilius Jim and Baln Krishnan Nair, who were released on Aug. 18, said they regularly receive phone calls from their captors, the Abu Sayyaf.

The three Malaysians, were among 21 tourists and workers, mostly foreigners, kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf from a Malaysian diving resort on April 23 and taken to the Philippine island of Jolo.

The group, which says it is fighting for an independent Islamic state in the southern Philippines, is still holding six foreigners and 12 Filipinos.

The three who spoke to the paper said the nine Malaysian hostages were treated better than the foreigners. They were allowed to handle weapons, and two, who were given guns, even attended a wedding with several Abu Sayyaf members, according to the report.