Philippine negotiators readying for hostages' Friday release

September 7, 2000
Web posted at: 2:19 PM HKT (0619 GMT)

MANILA, Philippines (Reuters) -- Philippine government negotiators said on Thursday that they were preparing for the release of six Europeans and one Filipino who have been held hostage for months by Muslim rebels.

However, the negotiators also said they were worried about possible last-minute hitches.

"This is exactly a situation where you hope for the best and expect the worst," said an official on the negotiating panel. "Anything can happen at this point. This is crunch time."

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The guerrillas have missed many previous deadlines.

Nevertheless, chief hostage negotiator Robert Aventajado has said he expected the Abu Sayyaf to release the hostages, held on Jolo island in the southern Philippines, on Friday.

However, as plans now stand, Aventajado and other members of the team will fly to Jolo on Friday morning for the expected release, negotiators said.

The seven hostages include a Filipino resort worker and four Europeans -- two Finns, a German and a Frenchman -- who were vacationing at the Malaysian diving resort of Sipadan when they were kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf on April 23.

The other two are French television journalists abducted on Jolo, 960 kilometers (600 miles) south of Manila, in July while they were covering the hostage crisis.

At least 16 others kidnapped on Sipadan and a third member of the French television crew have been released. Local officials say ransoms amounting to millions of dollars have been paid.

A separate faction of the rebels is holding an American kidnapped last week, and parallel negotiations are under way for his release. The United States has said, however, that it would not pay ransom or release prisoners for his freedom.

The rebels had demanded three Muslim militants jailed in the United States for the 1993 bombing of New York's World Trade Center be freed in exchange for Jeffrey Schilling, a 24-year-old from Oakland, California.

Negotiators said they had heard Schilling was being held in a jungle hut in the interior of Jolo, and that his hands had been bound with twine because he had hit out at his abductors.

But chief government spokesman Ricardo Puno told reporters: "That is all unconfirmed news. I have heard that he is being allowed to exercise daily. But the main thing he is not being treated roughly."

Vice Governor Munib Estino, a senior official based on Jolo, has been designated as the government negotiator for Schilling, and has said he expected the American to be released within 10 days.

But Puno said he did not know the basis for Estino's optimism.

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
Governments on the WWW: Philippines

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