RP quiet on prospect for further hostage releases

RP quiet on prospect for further hostage releases

ISABELA, Philippines (AFP): Relatives of beheaded hostages searched for the severed heads on Sunday as the government played down the prospect of Muslim guerrillas releasing more of the 23 remaining captives, who include two Americans.

The Abu Sayyaf hostage crisis entered its fifth week with grim scenes of 10 men searching through the neat rows of rubber trees at a plantation about three kilometers from the provincial capital of southern Basilan island.

Caked blood covered one patch of ground about 30 meters from the highway, where the headless torsos of two plantation workers, among 15 abducted in a nearby town last June 11, were found last Saturday.

The men went about their grim task quietly, but had had no luck several hours later.

The Muslim guerrillas still hold at least 23 other hostages including U.S. Christian missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham, both Kansas natives.

Californian Guillermo Sobero is presumed dead after the rebels claimed to have beheaded him, although his body has not been found.

Independent Malaysian negotiators have claimed three hostages would walk free on Sunday, but the government said there had been no sightings of any released captives.

A military advance on suspected Abu Sayyaf lairs was continuing in a mountainous area in the center of Basilan island. Presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao was suspicious of the motives of the private mediators, believed to be former Malaysian senator Sairin Karno and businessman Yusuf Hamdan who the rebels specifically demanded as negotiators.

Government officials have received calls from people identifying themselves as Sairin and Hamdan saying they were in direct contact with the guerrillas and were instrumental in the release of three hostages last week.

But Tiglao said the motive of Hamdan in particular was suspect. "We appreciate his help, but are a bit worried if he's doing it for the sake of Muslims or for other reasons. We are not too happy about it," Tiglao said.

Tiglao said the U.S. government had reiterated that it will "reject all aid intended to facilitate the payment of ransom".

Sairin and Hamdan negotiated with the Abu Sayyaf in a hostage crisis last year, brokering a Libyan-funded deal that raised millions of dollars for the guerrillas in exchange for dozens of hostages, including 10 western tourists.

Hamdan, who has been in mobile phone contact with rebel spokesman Abu Sabaya, said he has pleaded for the lives of the hostages, saying "as Muslims it is against our religion" to kill them.

A man answering Sairin's phone Sunday said the politician was not available.

President Gloria Arroyo, determined there be "no ransom, no negotiations, no mercy," has sent more than 5,000 troops to Basilan to hunt down the Abu Sayyaf.

Her National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said further hostage releases "were just rumors" without evidence. "They said they were released some days ago but we have seen nothing yet."

It would take about three days for released captives to walk through military lines and emerge from the jungle but "there have been no sightings", Golez said.

The self-styled Islamic freedom fighters are described by the military as bandits with a history of beheading hostages.

In the past week, seven decapitated bodies have been discovered. Two were Filipino plantation workers abducted on June 11, and three were soldiers missing since a firefight with the guerrillas in early June.

Two other bodies found Friday near Tuburan, where the Abu Sayyaf said they beheaded Sobero, have not been identified but police said they were Filipinos.

In early June, when nine hostages escaped, another two captives were killed, one of them decapitated.

Meanwhile, Arroyo thanked Libyan leader Moamar Qaddafi for Tripoli's mediation over the conflict between the Manila government and the country's Muslim rebels, the JANA agency reported on Sunday.

In a written message quoted by the official JANA agency, Arroyo thanked Qaddafi "for efforts undertaken by the (Qaddafi) charitable organization to restore peace in the Philippines."

Manila and the separatists of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed a peace deal last Friday in Tripoli under the auspices of the Qaddafi charitable foundation, run by the Libyan leader's son Seif al-Islam.

The Libyan leader met last Saturday with delegations from the MILF and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), another Muslim separatist movement which signed its own peace deal with Manila in 1996 and took part in the peace negotiations in the Libyan capital, JANA said.