Tourists abducted from Sipadan 'safe'

Tourists abducted from Sipadan 'safe'

SEMPORNA, Malaysia (AP): Two Americans who escaped abduction
from a remote island off northeastern Borneo arrived in the
Malaysian capital Monday night to brief authorities, while the
whereabouts of 20 other foreign tourists and local resort workers
remained a mystery more than 24 hours after their capture.

Information relayed to authorities said the hostages were
safe, according to Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar.
He would not elaborate.

Six heavily armed assailants surprised and then captured the
group on Sipadan Island late Sunday, said Sulaiman Junaidi,
police chief of Semporna, the port city where divers catch boats
headed for the lush island.

The hostage-takers were speaking the Filipino language of
Tausug, officials said. The abductors made no demands and sped
off in two fishing boats that appeared to be heading into
Philippine waters, they said.

Malaysian Inspector General of Police Norian Mai told a news
conference that six men carrying AK-47 rifles and a rocket
launcher forced 20 people onto the boats after confiscating their
cash and jewelry. Other authorities have said up to 23 people
were abducted.

Details were fuzzy regarding the whereabouts of the hostages.
Norian said he did not know where they were, while Defense
Minister Najib Tun Razak said an air-and-sea search team had
located them.

"We now know their exact location," Najib said without
elaborating.

When asked if the Malaysian government had any information on
the armed hostage-takers, Syed Hamid said: "I think the
authorities are taking the necessary steps to get them released
from their captors."

Norian said police suspected that "political motives" were
likely behind the hostage-taking. "We believe a foreign element
is involved."

Sipadan is a world-renowned diving island off the northeast
coast of Sabah, the Malaysian side of Borneo island, which is
shared with Indonesia.

The two Southeast Asian neighbors have both claimed
sovereignty over the island since 1969. But there were no
indications that the hostage-takers were involved in the
territorial dispute.

Philippine officials said they were investigating a possible
link between the hostage-taking in Malaysia and Filipino rebels
who took hostages last month on a Southern Philippine island in
the same waters as Sipadan.

Two Americans, James and Mary Murphy, both 51, escaped by
refusing to get on the boat, according to police in Semporna.

Police there said the couple was from St. George's Crescent,
but they didn't know which state they were from.

Eyewitnesses at the resort island said the hostages were
forced to swim to the boats. They said Mary Murphy couldn't swim
and when the kidnappers tried to force her, James Murphy said
they'd have to shoot him if they forced her into the water.

When the hostage-takers turned around, the Murphys apparently
ran into the bushes and hid until dawn, eyewitnesses said.

Malaysia's foreign minister, contradicting earlier reports
that many of the hostages were Americans, said the group now
included two French tourists, three Germans, two South Africans,
two Finns and one Lebanese.

The hostages also included four Malaysians from the wildlife
department and five Malaysians and one Filipino working at the
resort.

Katja Libowski, 28, from Munich, Germany, told the AP that she
was with the three German hostages until Friday, when she went to
a neighboring island for a diving lesson. She said Werner Gunter
Cort and Renate Juta, and their son Marc Wallert, were from
Hanover.

"I remember waving goodbye to them before I left," she said.
"It's a beautiful place, but I don't think I'll come back here
for the next few years."

A local marine photographer who escaped said one of the
kidnappers identified himself as a police officer and told him to
give up his watch and cellular phone.

"At first I thought he was joking ... but when I refused to
obey his orders, he held a gun to my head," Danny Chin, 48, was
quoted as saying by the national news agency Bernama.