RP kidnappers abort negotiations, flee with hostages
RP kidnappers abort negotiations, flee with hostages
JOLO, Philippines (AFP): Separatist rebels aborted a meeting with Philippine negotiators on Thursday and fled with their 21 hostages, apparently fearing an attack by the army, a senior aide to President Joseph Estrada said.
The breakdown dealt a blow to efforts to win the immediate release of German hostage Renate Wallert, who suffers from high blood pressure and is feared to have had a stroke.
The negotiators had been unable to re-establish contact with the Abu Sayyaf kidnappers following a redeployment of troops surrounding their hideout, presidential adviser Roberto Aventajado said.
"It's the wrong signal given by the army," he told reporters. The army "cannot play games with us," he said, referring to repeated warnings by negotiators that a stepped up military presence would interfere with efforts to free the hostages.
But Aventajado described the communication breakdown as a "temporary setback" to efforts to win the freedom of Wallert and the 20 other mostly foreign captives.
The separatist rebels had pledged during their first meeting with the negotiators on this southern island on Wednesday that they would respond within 24 hours to a request to release 57 year-old Wallert who requires urgent medical treatment.
The Abu Sayyaf rebels are also holding Wallert's husband and son, as well as nationals from France, Finland, South Africa, Lebanon, the Philippines and Malaysia. They were snatched from a Malaysian resort on April 23 and taken to Jolo island in the southern Philippines.
An AFP reporter who visited the military deployment on a highway near the town of Patikul said the area was teeming with soldiers, military trucks and armored troop carriers.
"We clarified this matter and asked the military to go away and we agreed on a place where they could be (redeployed)," Aventajado said.
The aide said he had reported to Estrada about the setback, and the president "was not very happy."
Former Libyan ambassador to the Philippines Rajab Azzarouq, who is helping Manila negotiate with the Abu Sayyaf, told reporters: This incident can happen anytime in such a situation with lots of tension."
He said the rebels "are quite alert about it and they moved from the place where we met" on Wednesday.
Aventajado said he obtained assurances from the army that the incident would not happen again."
"We are trying to re-establish contact with the rebels but they moved somewhere else so no contact today," he said, adding it could take time to renew contact as the army would only be moving to the pre-arranged positions on Friday morning.
As negotiations were disrupted, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said in Brussels that mediation with the rebels would be long and difficult.
"The important thing is that the solution will not be military, that it will be a political solution," said Solana, who returned from Manila where he held talks with Estrada.
The governments of the hostages are getting increasingly uneasy over the fate of their citizens.
Envoys from Germany, France, Finland and Malaysia, accompanied by the current Libyan ambassador, called on Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado on Thursday to express their concerns.
"We discussed things to make the hostages comfortable," Mercado told reporters later.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said in Berlin that the "physical integrity of the hostages remains our priority aim, above all else."
The Malaysian Red Crescent Society on Thursday airlifted here medical supplies for the hostages.
"Our main priority is to treat all hostages and if possible, make sure that those who are sick are released," said Bahari Abu Mansor, one of three Malaysian doctors who arrived with the supplies.
The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) said it was prepared to send envoys to try to help ensure the peaceful release of the hostages, but Manila has made it clear it will not accept international mediation.