RP kidnappers asked to put demands in writing

RP kidnappers asked to put demands in writing

JOLO, Philippines (Agencies): Philippines President Joseph Estrada on Monday told guerrillas holding 21 mostly foreign hostages to put their demands in writing as Manila prepared for lengthy talks with the captors.

Government negotiators are to return to this southern island on Tuesday after consultations with Estrada during which he gave the go ahead for talks partially within a framework proposed by the Abu Sayyaf rebels, senior aides said.

But the government rejected outright the guerrillas demand that the military pull out from the proposed talks venue.

Press Secretary Ricardo Puno said the soldiers had already given "enough space" after they lifted a military cordon around the Abu Sayyaf hideout here.

Puno said the president had demanded a written document, "because this is the only paper that you are going to hold them to. Because later on they might say, 'that's not my demand, that's his.'"

Roberto Aventajado, Estrada's point man in the Jolo crisis, said negotiations should resume on Wednesday and added that the government was prepared for a long process, "even months if necessary."

Nine Malaysians, three Germans, two French nationals, two Finns, two South Africans, two Filipinos and a Lebanese entered their 23rd day in captivity on Monday after the Abu Sayyaf ignored government pleas for the release of ailing German hostage Renate Wallert on humanitarian grounds.

The 57-year-old Wallert, who suffers from high blood pressure, is in "very bad" shape and is unconscious most of the time, two European journalists who visited the rebel camp said on Monday.

"The German woman is not doing well. She's most of the time unconscious, and when she's dreaming" she would utter things about Germany, Florence Compain of the French newspaper Le Figaro told colleagues here.

When she wakes up "she's crying. She cries a lot. She's really bad."

In Berlin, the German foreign ministry called Monday on journalists to show "responsibility" in their reporting about the 21 hostages held by rebels on the Philippines island of Jolo.

In a statement, the ministry also issued a joint warning with the French foreign ministry to people not to travel to the region of West Mindanao and Jolo in particular.

Germans already at the scene were advised to show the "greatest caution" and to leave immediately for a safer area.

The ministry called on "all media to show particular responsibility and reflection in their reporting of the hostage- taking and take into account at all times the well-being and interests of the hostages and their families."

The Philippine foreign secretary warned on Monday that his government cannot take responsibility for the safety of journalists who attempt to visit the jungle hide-out where rebels are holding 21 hostages.

Nine journalists, mostly foreigners, were still in the mountains on Monday after an attempt to visit the hostages, fellow journalists said. They said one French man had called his editors and said they were safe and in the Abu Sayyaf rebel camp.

In recent days large numbers of journalists, mostly from France and Germany, have climbed the mountains where the Abu Sayyaf are hiding out, seeking interviews. Authorities are unsure how many have gone because there is no press registration system, and most have returned safely.

The 1,000-member Abu Sayyaf, the smaller of two Muslim groups fighting for a separate state in the southern Philippines, raided the Malaysian resort of Sipadan off Malaysian Borneo on Easter Sunday and kidnapped 10 tourists and 11 resort workers, taking them by boat across the sea border to Jolo.

President Estrada's envoy Aventajado said after a meeting with the leader that the Abu Sayyaf had evolved an apparent collective leadership after their founder Abdurajak Janjalani was shot dead by police in 1998.