Efforts to free U.S. hostage slow down in Philippines

Jeffrey Schilling

In this story: A different kind of hostage Estrada denounced RELATED STORIES, SITES

MANILA, Philippines (Reuters) -- The protracted Philippine hostage crisis took a bizarre turn on Friday when the government said a young American apparently held by bandits on a remote southern island had fallen for his captors.

The son of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi went further, accusing Muslim convert Jeffrey Schilling, 24, of being an arms dealer doing business with the kidnap-for-ransom Abu Sayyaf gang which has threatened to behead him.

The accusations flew a day after Manila said it was closing in on gang members holding Schilling on the mountainous island of Jolo and that his release could be imminent.

MESSAGE BOARD Philippine kidnappings

On Friday, it said the operation, launched on Saturday, had slowed down.

"Admittedly, we are behind schedule," armed forces chief general Angelo Reyes told a news conference. President Joseph Estrada had wanted it wrapped up in six days.

Most Jolo refugees arriving in nearby Zamboanga on Friday said they had heard of widespread civilian deaths but not seen the evidence. All said they fled because they were scared.

Independent assessment of what is happening on the ground on Jolo is difficult. A naval cordon has stopped journalists visiting the island and the few already based there find communications unstable.

If not a hostage, Schilling has nevertheless become the focus of government rescue attempts and question marks over his status could mean further red faces in the Estrada administration.

"Make sure you tell the Philippine government to stop the (military) operation because right now that's the biggest threat to my life," Schilling told his mother, Carol, in a telephone call broadcast by local radio from southern Jolo.

"If I do die because of the operation... Look I can't be released if the government is conducting operations and not negotiating."

Schilling made a similar appeal on Thursday. Manila pledged to intensify the assault on the Abu Sayyaf until all 17 remaining hostages were released.

Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora told local radio Schilling was "not the ordinary kind of hostage" taken against his will.

"Look at the tone of what he is saying. Very clearly, if he is not involved, he has fallen for his kidnappers. If you read in the papers what he said, basically it has no difference from that of Abu Sabaya (the Abu Sayyaf spokesman)."

Deputy Press Secretary Mike Toledo said it was possible Schilling was suffering from so-called Stockholm syndrome, in which hostages fall for their captors.

"But as it is now, it is the policy of the government to recover all the hostages, as safely, as expeditiously as possible, and that as of now includes the American Schilling," he said.

Gaddafi's son Seif al-Islam, a key figure in the release of earlier hostages in a crisis which has proved a huge embarrassment to the Philippine government, said in an interview that Schilling was an arms dealer.

"We know now that Jeffrey Schilling was selling arms to the rebels," Seif al-Islam told the French Figaro Magazine. "Nobody knew this information before and I am revealing it for the first time. He went to the rebel camp several times. He may have converted to Islam but he is first and foremost an arms dealer."

Libyan negotiators brokered the release of eight European and two South African hostages in late August and early September. Millions of dollars changed hands.

French journalists Jean-Jacques Le Garrec, 46, and Roland Madura, 49, arrived in Paris on Thursday after escaping their Abu Sayyaf captors under the cover of dark.

The release of the Frenchmen appeared at the time to be a huge political fillip for Estrada, but on Friday it looked like the criticism had only just begun.

Le Garrec denounced Estrada for launching the attack, saying the army had bombarded civilians and given the Muslim rebel group Abu Sayyaf unwarranted credibility.

"What was essentially a bunch of racketeers has become in some ways a political movement thanks to the criminal operation sent in to respond to it," he said.

"...It was impossible to imagine, in this mountainous region, an army operation that could have got us. We risked being stuck in the middle. There would have been a massacre," he said.

A government statement that two civilians have died in the assault jar with reports from some residents fleeing Jolo. One said she saw 10 bodies after a bomb fell on a wedding party.

Three bodies were seen gagged and shot, bound at the wrists and ankles and dumped on a Jolo garbage heap. Police believe they were the victims of family feuds. The military says 25 bodies of Abu Sayyaf members have been found in operational areas.

Schilling was taken hostage on Jolo, 960 km (600 miles) from Manila, on August 28. He is being held separately from 16 other hostages -- three Malaysians and 13 Filipinos.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Philippine Information Agency
Library of Congress Country Studies: Philippines
Terrorist Group Profiles: Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG)
Moro Islamic Liberation Front
Shooting the MILF, Photo Essay
Understanding Islam and Muslims
Human Rights in Islam: The Political Framework Of Islam
Governments on the WWW: Philippines

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