RP kidnappers refuse to give up demands

RP kidnappers refuse to give up demands

JOLO, Philippines (Agencies): Two government negotiators met for several hours on Friday with rebels holding 21 hostages in a remote Philippine jungle, and said the guerrillas refused to give up their demand for an independent Islamic nation.

The government has repeatedly ruled out any breakup of the Philippines.

"If they cannot compromise on their position, probably we cannot proceed," negotiator Farouk Hussein said of the Abu Sayyaf rebels.

The meeting had been intended only as a preparatory session for a second round of formal negotiations, but instead focused at length on all of the rebels' demands, the two negotiators said. Another meeting will follow Saturday, they said.

The two sides have held only one formal negotiating session, on May 27, since the hostages were seized April 23 from a Malaysian diving resort and brought to Jolo, an island at the tip of the southern Philippines.

The slow pace has been bitterly criticized by the hostages, whose psychological state has deteriorated in recent weeks as prospects for their speedy release have dimmed. Physically, however, their living conditions at the Abu Sayyaf mountain hide- out have improved somewhat because of a wooden hut built for them by government-commissioned carpenters and regular shipments of food and medicine.

"In the past weeks, we have been better because, as you see, the conditions are a bit better, but mentally it's been hard," Finnish hostage Risto Vahanen told visiting journalists Thursday.

Several of the hostages have threatened suicide, and a government doctor urged Thursday that one, Stephane Loisy of France, be hospitalized because of psychological distress.

The Abu Sayyaf are holding three Germans, two French, two Finns, two South Africans, a Lebanese, nine Malaysians and two Filipinos at their camp on Jolo island.

Two Malaysian Red Crescent doctors and a German physician arrived in Jolo Friday and planned to visit the hostages on Saturday.

President Joseph Estrada has ordered the negotiators to make substantial progress by next Monday, Philippine Independence Day.

"We expect positive developments by June 12 since it is freedom day," said provincial Gov. Abdusakur Tan, another member of the negotiating team. "We should have positive results. I hope it will really be significant."

But Hussein warned there will "have to be a lot of compromises."

A separate group of Abu Sayyaf rebels have been holding eight Filipino hostages -- two teachers and six children -- on nearby Basilan island. Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Ahmad said Friday those rebels have slipped through a military dragnet and escaped to Jolo with six of the hostages. It was not clear what happened to the other two.

He confirmed rumors that the Abu Sayyaf's top leader, Khadaffy Janjalani, had been hit by shrapnel from a grenade on Basilan. "He is not in critical condition," Ahmad said in an interview with the Radio Mindanao Network.

The Philippine rebels confirmed on Friday they were demanding one million dollars ransom for each of the 21 mostly foreign hostages they are holding in the southern island of Jolo.

"That is confirmed," said Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sabaya in a radio interview monitored in the nearby city of Zamboanga.