RI dispatches special team to RP to free hostages

RI dispatches special team to RP to free hostages

Ivy Susanti, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The Indonesian government has sent a special team to help free
three Indonesian crew members of a ship who were taken hostage by
an unidentified armed group in the Philippines, foreign affairs
ministry spokesman Yuri Oktavian Thamrin has said.

Yuri said the team was led by Triyono Wibowo from the
ministry, and comprised officials from the State Intelligence
Agency (BIN), National Police and the Office of the Coordinating
Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs. Triyono has
in the past led teams to free two Indonesian maids and two
Indonesian journalists who were kidnapped in Iraq.

"On Wednesday, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono requested help from
Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. To follow up on
this, the Indonesian government dispatched a special team to the
Philippines this morning (Friday). We hope, the team's presence
will help intensify the efforts to free the hostages," he told
reporters on Friday.

Separately, he said that the Indonesian Embassy in the
Philippines was preparing for the arrival of Indonesian
legislators Fannie Habibie, Ade Nasution, Yuddy Chrisnandi, Ali
Muchtar Ngabalin and Usman Muhammad Al Hadar on Sunday. The
legislators would meet with local figures to help with the effort
to free the hostages.

Ade said that the legislators were on a humanitarian mission.
He also expressed regret that the government had been what he
termed slow in taking up the case, with Susilo only phoning his
Philippines counterpart on Wednesday.

"We are paying our own way to the Philippines. We are sharing
our expenses as we want to show we are serious about our
responsibilities as legislators," he was quoted as saying by
Antara on Friday.

Ade said that the legislators would ask Nur Misuari, a Muslim
leader and founder of the Moro National Liberation Front, to help
free the hostages. Ade knew Misuari personally, as he had brought
Misuari to visit Indonesia in 1995.

The three Indonesian crew members, Ahmad Resmiadi, Yamin
Labuso and Erikson Hutagaol, were kidnapped by five armed
Filipino pirates on March 30 while aboard a Malaysian tugboat,
the Bonggaya, in the Philippines' Tawi-tawi waters.

The kidnappers, who thought earlier that their captives were
Malaysians, have demanded that the Malaysian government pay 3
million ringgit (US$789,578) as a ransom.

Yuri said that the embassy had managed to speak to Yamin on
both Wednesday and Thursday. Yamin confirmed that Resmiadi was
still alive, unlike as earlier reported in Jakarta, and that his
colleagues were suffering from malaria and diarrhea.

"Yamin was unable to disclose his location as he did not
know where he was. But he did say that the kidnappers belong to
a large group and they are fully armed," Yuri said, adding that
the special team had also brought medical supplies for the hostages.

"The Indonesian Embassy in the Philippines will continue to
coordinate with the local authorities. We have urged the minister
of foreign affairs and other relevant institutions, like the
police and military, to increase their efforts."

He said that Indonesia had also asked local public and
religious figures to appeal to the kidnappers, "on the basis of
humanitarian or religious concern."

"These figures have a wide reach in the southern Philippines'
community. But they asked us not to disclose their informal
approaches to the kidnappers. So we cannot give any names, but
rest assured that they are public and religious figures, such as
figures from the Sulu Sultanate."

The sultanate is pursuing a claim over the Malaysian territory
of Sabah.

Yuri also reiterated the government's call to the ship's
owner, which is based in Sandakan, Malaysia, to help in ensuring
the safe release of the men. He said Indonesia had also asked the
Malaysian government to speak to the company to this end.

"Apparently, as the hostages are Indonesians, perhaps the
the pressure from figures in authority is not so great. But
anyway, our representative offices in Kota Kinabalu and Kuala
Lumpur are trying to ensure that the men's employers also take
responsibility."