April 27, 2000, AsiaOne, The Sipadan Hostage Crisis: 'We Won't Pay Ransom,' Reports Melvin Singh,
April 27, 2000, Asia One, The Sipadan Hostage Crisis, Hi, Miss... this is your terrorist speaking...
April 27, 2000, BBC News, Hostages 'safe' in Philippines,
April 27, 2000, Bernama, The Very Name of Abdul Rajak Janjalani Strikes Fear in Mindanao, Ali Mamat,
April 27, 2000, Bernama, Operations Centre Set Up Following Sipadan Incident,
April 27, 2000, Bernama, M'sian Embassy Denies It Will Pay Ransom to Sipadan Kidnap Gang,
April 27, 2000, Bernama, Eight of 21 Captives Released,
April 27, 2000 Bernama, Elite Force Awaits Misuari's Directive to Deal with Kidnappers, by Ali Mammat,
April 27, 2000, Bernama, Misuari Vows to Work For Release of Captives,
April 27 , 2000, Bernama, Sipadan: Nur Misuari to Meet Emissary of Kidnappers Tomorrow,
April 27, 2000, Bernama, Bernama, Misuari's men make contact with sipadan kidnappers, by E Sivabalan,
April 27, 2000, AFP, Chief government negotiator to reject any ransom demands,
April 27, 2000, AFP, Chief state negotiator delays trip to meet hostage captors,
April 27, 2000, AFP, Former Muslim warrior Nur Misuari returns to old haunts as negotiator,
April 27, 2000, AFP, Malaysia willing to negotiate with abductors: Mahathir,
April 27, 2000, AFP, Kidnapping only growth industry on hostage island,
April 27, 2000, AFP, Philippines makes first contact with Muslim extremists over hostages,
April 27, 2000, Reuters, Philippines sends negotiator to kidnappers,
April 27, 2000, Reuters, Faulty boat blocks release of Malaysian hostages,
April 27, 2000, New Straits Times, Hostages Taken to Different Places,
April 27, 2000, The Star Online [Malaysia], Sighted: Sipadan hostages split up, then reunited on Sulu island,
April 27, 2000, Associated Press, Kidnappers make ransom demand after hostage grab on Malaysian resort,
April 27, 2000, Agence France-Presse, Chief government negotiator to reject any ransom demands,
JOLO, Philippines, April 27 (AFP) - 10:36 - The chief negotiator for the release of 21 hostages seized in Malaysia and brought by their Muslim extremist captors to the southern Philippines said Thursday he would reject any ransom demands.
Asked about news reports that the kidnappers were demanding more than two million dollars, former Muslim rebel leader Nur Misuari said: "I will not entertain monetary considerations."
Misuari, 59, prepared Thursday to fly to the southern island of Jolo to seek the freedom of the three Germans, two French nationals, two South Africans, two Finns, a Lebanese woman, nine Malaysians and two Filipinos seized Sunday from the Malaysian resort island of Sipadan off Borneo.
He said Wednesday that some of the foreign captives had been sighted on
Jolo, the biggest island in the Sulu group in the southernmost section of
the archipelago near Borneo.
The hostages had been split into two groups in the town of Talipao, he said.
Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan told AFP Thursday the captives were being regularly moved and warned against any military action to free them.
"The hostages are being moved from one municipality to another because these are very close to each other," he said. "I have sent my emissaries to verify and find out their demands. This is not an easy situation."
He added: "I don't think we should make any move to free the hostages."
Misuari, now the governor of a southern Muslim autonomous region, said he had not been officially informed about any ransom demand, but had read about it in the press.
A relative of one of the Filipino captives told AFP on Wednesday the kidnappers, who took the captives across the sea border into the southern Philippines, had demanded more than two million dollars.
Misuari, the leader of the former separatist Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) which signed a peace treaty with the government in 1996, said in a radio interview before he left Manila for Jolo that he was confident of securing the release.
He confirmed the captors belonged to the Islamic guerrilla group Abu Sayyaf and said some were related or known to his followers in the MNLF, which has observer status in the Organization of the Islamic Conference, an influential forum of Muslim states.
Misuari also said he dispatched a senior MNLF aide and two assistants to talk to Galib Andang, alias "Commander Robot," believed to be the head of the unit which snatched the hostages. The aide is Andang's uncle, he said.
"I will try my best but I cannot promise miracles," he said.
He said he was satisfied with his written mandate from the Philippine government, which has authorized him to seek the help from the military.
But he said he would also meet officials at the presidential palace to widen his authority to include police units.
Misuari also said he had heard the kidnappers were demanding the reactivation of an agreement with the government that would enhance local fishing rights.
The Abu Sayyaf, with about several hundred armed followers, is the smaller of two Muslim separatist rebel groups in the main southern region of Mindanao. It is also the most violent.
Abu Sayyaf gunmen are currently under seige by army troops in the island of Basilan where they are holding another group of 27 Filipino captives, including a Roman Catholic priest and several school children.
--AFP
April 27, 2000, Bernama, The Very Name of Abdul Rajak Janjalani Strikes Fear in Mindanao, by Ali Mamat,
12:59PM
KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 (Bernama) -- He had a soft face, was easily approachable, charming, highly courteous and always held a string of prayer beads.
Looking at his gentle character even an ant will not die if he were to step on it. No one ever thought that the late Abdul Rajak Janjalani will become the founder of the radical, extremist and much feared Moro separatist group in Mindanao.
Some in the Philippines consider the group led by him, known as "Abu Sayyaf" as a terrorist organisation which does not show mercy.
The group in the course of its activities does not select its targets. What ever opportunity which can profit its struggle be it money or political advantages would not be allowed to pass.
The latest example of its "end justifies the means" approach is the abduction of 21 people, assuming Malaysian and Philippine intelligence reports are correct, comprising locals and foreigners from Pulau Sipadan, Sabah.
During a chance meeting with Ali Mamat on an island in the Southern Philippines in 1997, Abdul Rajak who was then in his 40s, appeared always smiling particularly when posed with questions about his status as the Philippine authorities' most wanted man.
Then the picture of Abdul Razak with the heading "Wanted Dead or Alive" with a reward of 500,000 Pesos (about RM50,000) was pasted in every corner of the city of Isabella, the capital of Basilan Province, in Jolo capital of Sulu and Bongao, the capital of Tawi-Tawi.
Calmly he replied, "This is a sacred struggle ...a holy war. If I die, I will die a martyr and someone will emerge from our group as the successor who will continue to hold up the flag of the struggle."
(Abdul Rajak was killed in a police ambush while returning to his house in Basilan to see his ailing father about a year after the meeting, at the end of 1998. The leadership has now passed to his younger brother Khadafy).
Moro sources close to Ali Mamat believe that Khadafy is not his real name but was given the title after Libyan leader Muammar Ghadafi who inspired Abdul Rajak in his struggle and who was said to have trained himself as a fighter in that Arab country.
Abdul Rajak also then calmly denied claims that the struggle of the Abu Sayyaf was filled with terrorism and brutality such as murders and kidnappings.
He admitted that his group had been involved in several activities of sabotage on Philippine Government interests and political kidnappings but according to him in most other cases particularly in that involving
murders, the Abu Sayyaf group was deliberately linked to them by the authorities to arouse public hatred towards the separatist group.
During the meeting he had also claimed that Abu Sayyaf was never involved in several cases of kidnappings in Mindanao, but still his group had been accused of being responsible for these.
Apart from Abu Sayyaf, Mindanao also has another main separatist group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a breakaway group from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) led by Prof Nur Misuari who signed a peace agreement with Manila in September 1996.
Like the Abu Sayyaf, the MILF led by Ustaz Salamat Hashim is struggling for an independent Moro nation in Mindanao. Its aim is similar to the original objective of the struggle of the MNLF which ultimately agreed to the formation of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) encompassing the provinces of Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur.
MNLF was founded by Misuari, a former lecturer with the University of the Philippines in Manila in 1968, following the killing of several hundred recruits of the Moro race by the Philippine Army on Corregidor Island for refusing to launch an attack on Sabah which at that time was claimed by Manila as its province.
The MILF was founded in 1978 after Ustaz Salamat who received his religious education in Egypt and Saudi Arabia opposed the first peace agreement signed by Misuari and Imelda Marcos, wife of then Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos in Tripoli, Libya, in 1976.
The history of the formation of Abu Sayyaf had not been officially recorded while its links with the MNLF and MILF are not known for it was originally an Islamic missionary movement which adopted the methods of the Taleban in Afghanistan.
Several senior leaders of the MNLF had cast doubts on the actual objectives of the Abu Sayyaf struggle with some claiming that it had been created by policy makers in Manila to create chaos and destroy the MNLF-Manila accord so as to belittle the ability of Misuari and the Muslims to administer the government in Mindanao.
Some of the MNLF officers consider the Abu Sayyaf as an enemy of the Moro race because of its alleged kidnappings and murdering of hostages as such acts went against Islamic teachings.
Apart from that the Southern Philippines is also home to several other small groups which threaten the peace there such as MNLF-Lost Command, with some 300 members founded by former MNLF fighters who feel they had been abandoned after the MNLF signed the agreement with Manila.
There is also an active Christian group which is anti MNLF, MILF, Abu Sayyaf and Manila known as Illaga which means "Rat". It was founded by several landowners who consider the formation of the ARMM as a threat to Christian interests in Mindanao and its targets include Moro residents and Manila's interests.
The islets around Mindanao, Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Palawan have also been the home for generations for pirates operating in the surrounding seas.
The book "Islam in Mindanao" claims the pirates played an important role in the history of Islam in Mindanao by creating all kinds of problems to the Spanish colonialists for more than 300 years resulting in the Spanish failure to fully control Mindanao and Christianise its residents.
According to the book many Spanish ships and that of its trading partners fell victims to the pirates in the Sulu Sea, the South China Sea and the Sulawesi Sea.
Whether the Sipadan abduction was committed by pirates or the Abu Sayyaf group, it remains a crime against humanity which should be condemned by the entire Moro people.
-- BERNAMA
April 27, 2000, Agence France-Presse, Chief state negotiator delays trip to meet hostage captors,
MANILA, April 27 (AFP) - 15:51 - A top official entrusted to negotiate with gunmen holding 21 hostages said Thursday he had delayed a trip to the southern Philippines to meet with the captors because he was seeking wider powers from the authorities.
Former Muslim rebel leader Nur Misuari, who was earlier scheduled to fly to Jolo on Thursday, spent most of the day meeting with aides of President Joseph Estrada to expand his authority to negotiate.
He was now scheduled to fly to the southern city of Zamboanga for an overnight stay Thursday and was likely to proceed on Friday to the island of Jolo farther south where gunmen from the extremist Abu Sayyaf are keeping the hostages.
Misuari complained that a written mandate authorizing him to "negotiate in behalf of the government of the Philippines" directed only the military forces to extend him full cooperation.
He said the mandate should also cover the Philippine National Police.
Misuari told reporters at the presidential palace that Estrada's chief aide had called Interior Secretary Alfredo Lim to order police forces in the south to help the chief negotiator.
"I want to proceed from a position of strength, psychologically and militarily. I want to send a strong message. I don't want hanky-panky," he told reporters.
A Misuari aide told AFP that the negotiator wanted "sole authority" to negotiate "without the usual third parties", referring to politicians.
--AFP
April 27, 2000, Agence France-Presse, Former Muslim warrior Nur Misuari returns to old haunts as negotiator,
JOLO, Philippines, April 27 (AFP) - 12:39 - Former Muslim guerrilla chieftain Nur Misuari returns to his old battle ground Thursday to negotiate with his younger, more radical Islamic brethren holding 21
hostages taken here from Malaysia.
Appointed as official negotiator by President Joseph Estrada, the 59-year-old Misuari was expected to draw from his long experience as a grizzled warrior as he plays the new role from the other side of the
political spectrum.
Misuari is the leader of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which dropped its 24-year armed struggle for an independent Muslim state in the southern region of Mindanao when it signed a peace treaty with the government in September 1996.
Under the deal, Misuari, the son of a poor fisherman in Jolo's Maimbung town, became the governor of a Muslim autonomous region in the south and several thousand of his fighters were integrated into the police and regular armed forces.
"I will try my best, but I cannot promise miracles," he said Thursday as he prepared to depart Manila for this southern island, which bears the scars of some of the most ferocious battles MNLF rebels fought with government forces in the early 1970s.
But Misuari said he would reject any ransom demands from the militant Abu Sayyaf group holding three Germans, two French nationals, two South Africans, two Finns, a Lebanese woman, nine Malaysians and two Filipinos.
A former Marxist, the soft-spoken Misuari quit his professorial chair for political science at the state-run University of the Philippines to set up the MNLF in 1971.
The group rose in open rebellion on October 23, 1972 to set up a separate Moro state in the southern third of the archipelago, backed by logistical support from some countries in the Middle East.
The rebellion was scuttled by military setbacks ended in an uneasy truce in
Jolo town, the capital of the island which bears the same name, was razed to the ground when 5,000 MNLF rebels attacked government forces there in February 1974 in one of the bloodiest battles of the war. About 400 people died in that attack.
Mellowed into pragmatism by age and adversity, Misuari tenaciously led months of sometimes acrimonious peace negotiations with his one-time bitter enemy, the then president and retired general Fidel Ramos.
"We want to try our hand on this thing named peace. We have not seen the real face of peace in our homeland the past 400 years," he once said, referring to Mindanao -- the cradle of Islam in this largely Roman Catholic nation.
But with the MNLF now a government ally and another separatist faction, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, holding its own peace talks with Manila, the Mindanao region has witnessed the emergence of a new gneration of Islamic militants led by the Abu Sayyaf.
Many Abu Sayyaf members are so-called "orphans of war", -- children of Muslims who died in the previous rebellions. Its leaders have voiced resentment over the older generation rebel leaders for smoking the peace pipe with the government.
But Misuari said the MNLF, an observer in the influential Organization of the Islamic Conference, could still use some of its influence to secure the freedom of the hostages.
Some of the leaders of the kidnap group are relatives or are known to members of the MNLF, he said.
--AFP
April 27, 2000, Reuters, Philippines sends negotiator to kidnappers,
08:03:00 ET,
JOLO, Philippines - A former Moslem rebel chief trying to win freedom for 21 hostages held by Islamic gunmen in the southern Philippines warned of tough bargaining ahead, saying the kidnappers would cling to the captives "tooth and nail."
But the Philippine military said it was ready to swing into action if necessary to rescue the hostages from separate hideouts on Jolo island in the Sulu Sea, 960 km (600 miles) south of the Philippine capital Manila.
The hostages are 10 Malaysians, three Germans, two French, two South Africans, two Finns, one Lebanese and a Filipina.
Moslem regional governor Nur Misuari, a former rebel whom President Joseph Estrada appointed the government's main negotiator, said two emissaries sent to the gunmen's stronghold had contacted the armed group.
He said the representatives reported to him they had seen most of the hostages and they were safe and well.
Misuari flew to southern Zamboanga city, close to Jolo, on the eve of a planned meeting on Friday with the gunmen or with their representatives.
"It will take a lot of persuasion...that's why I am not promising a miracle at all," Misuari told reporters.
"We should be prepared for any eventuality because these people will cling to these hostages tooth and nail, I'm sure."
They are in a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, one of two groups fighting for an Islamic state in the south of this mostly Roman Catholic country.
Misuari said his representatives told him they saw a total of 17 hostages, including "six white men."
EVERYONE IS ALIVE
"They said everyone is alive and kicking and so there is nothing to worry about their health..." he said.
One of Misuari's representatives was the uncle of a local guerrilla leader, known as "Commander Robot," who was holding the hostages.
Misuari, governor of a semi-autonomous Moslem region comprising four southern provinces, said the 10 Malaysian hostages in the group were to have been released but a boat due to take them home broke down.
Misuari said the kidnappers demanded Filipino reporters witness any negotiations and the government curb fishing in waters around Moslem communities in the south.
He did not know of any ransom demands.
Officials said the hostages, abducted from a Malaysian diving resort on Sunday, had been split up by their kidnappers to prevent detection and thwart any rescue attempt.
The kidnap gang is a mixture of separatist Abu Sayyaf rebels and former guerrillas turned bandit, officials said.
"We have a military contingency although our president (Joseph Estrada) has ordered us to negotiate," acting armed forces chief General Jose Calimlim said in a radio interview.
MILITARY READY TO DO ITS JOB
"We are looking at an early solution of this problem. The military is ready to do its job to resolve this quickly."
Calimlim later told a news conference: "If there is a need for a rescue operation, we will do it, but if it's risky for the hostages, we will not do it. We will go into negotiations."
Calimlim said a military task force -- estimated by military sources at up to 1,000 men -- had been set up to surround areas where the gunmen were believed to be holding the hostages.
"We have directed our task force to generate as much force as possible," he said.
He gave no details of the military plans but an armed forces spokesman has said the military had mobilised air force, naval and ground units for a possible assault and rescue operation.
Presidential palace sources said the gunmen were demanding 30 million pesos ($720,000). A relative of the Filipina hostage said the family's information was the kidnappers wanted 10 million Malaysian ringgit ($2.6 million).
The Jolo affair is one of two hostage dramas being played out in the Philippines.
On Basilan island to the northeast of Jolo, helicopter gunships have been pounding the mountain lair of the Abu Sayyaf for five days to try to free 27 Filipino hostages -- 22 of them schoolchildren -- held by the
guerrillas for more than a month.
The Basilan gunmen are demanding the release of three Islamic militants held in the United States, including the convicted mastermind of the 1993 bombing of New York's World Trade Center.
--ABC News
April 27, 2000, AsiaOne, The Sipadan Hostage Crisis: 'We Won't Pay Ransom,' Reports Melvin Singh,
We are in negotiation mode. You are at a stage where you are tryingIF it is money that the Sipadan kidnappers are after, they can forget about it.
to wait for contacts from the other side.
- Philippine Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon
That is the firm stand taken by Mr Nur Misuari, governor of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao in southern Philippines, reported AFP this morning.
The former rebel leader has been appointed chief negotiator for the release of 21 hostages seized on the Sipadan resort island off Sabah on Sunday night.
"I will not entertain monetary considerations," said Mr Misuari, who was due to fly today to the southern island of Jolo to seek the hostages' freedom. They comprise 10 Malaysians, three Germans, two French nationals, two South Africans, two Finns, one Lebanese and one Filipino.
The Philippine Inquirer reported today that an official of the Malaysian Embassy had called a radio station in southern Philippines to say that the embassy was willing to pay ransom.
Philippine officials are now leaning towards the theory that the 15 armed kidnappers - not six as earlier reported - are part of a kidnap-for-ransom gang.
The 21 hostages are all "safe and fine" on the remote island of Jolo, a high-level source within the Philippine government told The New Paper yesterday.
Jolo, some 140 km south-west of Zamboanga, is a known stronghold of the notorious Abu Sayyaf group.
The source added: "They were all in good shape and looked fine when spotted. Negotiations are underway for their release."
According to a radio station in Zamboanga in southern Philippines, the kidnappers had made a ransom demand.
Radio DXRZ's news anchorwoman Jennie Sanson told TNP: "The group demanded $2.6 million although they did not say in what currency."
She had been in contact with the group.
The Philippine ambassador to Malaysia, Mr Jose Brillantes, told TNP that there had been conflicting reports of the actual ransom demand.
He added: "What we are having are former members of Abu Sayyaf who have detached themselves from the group. The whereabouts have been pinpointed as Jolo but reports have to be verified first."
In Manila, Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon said the government was not planning any military operation to free the hostages.
"We are in negotiation mode. You are at a stage where you are trying to wait for contacts from the other side," the Inquirer quoted him as saying.
Mr Misuari told AFP that the Philippine government had authorised him to seek the help from the military.
"I will try my best but I cannot promise miracles," said the battle-hardened former guerilla.
--AsiaOne
April 27, 2000, Agence France-Presse, Malaysia willing to negotiate with abductors: Mahathir,
KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 (AFP) - Malaysia is willing to negotiate with the gunmen who abducted 21 people from a resort island off Borneo over the weekend if contacted, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Thursday.
"We'll do anything to secure the release of the captives. We're not discounting any options to secure their release," he was quoted as saying by the Bernama news agency during a visit to his homestate Kedah.
He said the government would "try to negotiate first" but when asked if they were prepared to meet any demands made, he added: "We don't know."
Mahathir said Malaysia was prepared to accept foreign help to resolve the matter if they offered.
The police, marine and navy were still patrolling the areas near Sipadan island, east of Sabah state where six masked gunmen seized 21 people including 10 foreign tourists at gunpoint, he added.
Bernama also quoted Malaysian police chief Norian Mai as telling reporters in Tawau town in Sabah that there had been no "important development" so far.
Norian said the Malaysian police, who were in direct contact with the Philippine authorities, had been informed that the captives' condition was not worrisome.
Philippine authorities said the hostages had been taken by their Muslim rebel captors to Jolo, the biggest island in the Sulu group which is close to Sabah.
The gunmen seized nine Malaysians, three Germans, two Filipinos, two French nationals, two South Africans, two Finns and a Lebanese woman.
--AFP
April 27, 2000, Bernama, M'sian Embassy Denies It Will Pay Ransom to Sipadan Kidnap Gang,
18:40PM
MANILA, April 27 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian embassy here today denied news reports it would negotiate ransom payment to the gunmen who kidnapped 21 people in Sipadan Island off Sabah last Sunday night.
"That's rubbish. The Malaysian government will not give ransom to anybody or any group. That's the principle," ambassador Arshad Hussein said.
He was reacting to reports quoting an unnamed Malaysian embassy official as calling a radio station in Zamboanga city, south of Manila, that the embassy wanted to negotiate and was willing to pay ransom to the kidnappers.
Philippine authorities had confirmed that the kidnappers brought their 21 captives, including 10 Malaysians and 11 foreigners, to the predominantly Muslim-populated Sulu province, 1,000 km south of here.
Arshad said it did not make sense for Malaysia to negotiate with the kidnappers since they are now on Philippine soil and that the Philippine government had already taken the initiative to secure the release of the victims.
President Joseph Estrada today gave the mandate to Muslim Mindanao Governor Nur Misuari to lead the government's negotiation with the abductors and secure the release of the victims.
Estrada's move followed reports that the kidnappers belonged to the Moro National Liberation Front which Misuari headed in a bloody separatist war in Mindanao in the early '70s.
Arshad told Bernama that Malaysia respects Manila's decision to appoint Misuari as negotiator, adding "we have full trust and confidence in his negotiating abilities."
Asked what role Malaysia would play now in the kidnapping drama, Arshad said: "Whatever role the Philippines would like us to play, we will consider."
He said although the kidnapping happened in a Malaysian territory, it would appear now that Manila would have to take the lead role in the negotiation since both the abductors and the victims are already in the Philippines.
"This is now a transnational crime. Obviously, the Philippines has to take the lead role in the negotiations," added Arshad.
-- BERNAMA
April 27 , 2000, Bernama, Eight of 21 Captives Released,
20:05PM
MANILA, April 27 (Bernama) -- Eight of the 2I people held captive by a group of Filipino-Muslim kidnappers in Sulu province have been freed, special government negotiator Nur Misuari said today.
Misuari, who is the Muslim Mindanao regional governor, however, could not immediately identify those released pending reports from his emissaries sent to Sulu earlier to deal with the abductors.
He said that based on initial reports he had received, the eight captives were released because they had no money to pay the ransom.
"Some of them are just ordinary workers in Sipandan resort. They can't pay anything," Misuari, himself a native of Sulu province, told a news conference, here.
He added that the kidnappers only wanted people such as foreign tourists who are capable of paying them ransom money.
Besides, they could not keep all of them at the same time, he said.
"They can't hide for long once pursued by the government. Definitely, it will be a big trouble for them,." he added.
The kidnappers, reportedly belonging to the extremist Abu Sayyaf group, had demanded 10 million ringgit in exchange for the freedom of the captives, many of them foreign tourists.
Misuari also warned the Abu Sayyaf extremists fighting for an Islamic state in Mindanao that he would mobilise his "Bangsa Moro Army" to put a stop to their terrorist activities in Mindanao.
He heads the Moro National Liberation Front which had sealed a peace pact with the government in 1996 to end its separatist war in southern Philippines.
"I will not tolerate any kidnap for ransom. I don't want society to fall victim to kidnapping or become hostages," Misuari said.
He said that as President Joseph Estrada's special negotiator, "I would do my level best to expedite the release of the remaining hostages."
"I intend to use my old repertoire of tactics and strategies in dealing with this hostage situation. I want to proceed from a position of strength psychologically and even militarily," Misuari said.
He said that in an administrative order, President Estrada gave him a "general and comprehensive" mandate to deal with the abductors.
Misuari said Estrada had also instructed the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippines National Police to cooperate with him to ensure the welfare and safety of the captives.
He said the Lebanese government, through the Organisation of Islamic Conference, had also requested the Philippines that he be appointed negotiator for the release of the captives, one of whom is a Lebanese woman.
In the incident on Sunday night, a group of six men armed with AK47 assault rifles and a rocket launcher abducted 21 people, including 11 foreign tourists, on the island and took them away in a boat.
Misuari, a separatist leader turned bureaucrat, has had a good track record in negotiating the safe release of kidnap victims in Mindanao.
He was responsible for the release of two Spanish nuns and two German nationals abducted in separate incidents several years ago.
According to Misuari, he was also involved in several negotiations abroad that also led to the safe release of hostages.
-- BERNAMA
April 27, 2000 Bernama, Elite Force Awaits Misuari's Directive to Deal with Kidnappers, by Ali Mammat,
20:06PM
KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 (Bernama) -- An elite squad of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) is expected to be deployed in collaboration with the other Philippine security agencies to secure the release of the 21 hostages allegedly kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf gang from Pulau Sipadan on Sunday.
The Muhtalla National Force Command had on several occasions in the recent past succeeded in obtaining the release of hostages after a series of lengthy and sometime risky negotiations with their kidnap-for-ransom or politically oriented captors.
The latest achievement of the unit was late last year when it secured the release of a Mindanao-based Christian priest of Italian origin who was kidnapped and held captive for several weeks in the city of Sioccon in the province of Zamboanga del Norte.
A senior commander of the squad who spoke on condition of anonymity said that his Zamboanga City-based unit was now awaiting further instructions from the MNLF Chairman Prof Nur Misuari before making any official contact with the kidnappers.
"Misuari is arriving in Zamboanga City from Manila this evening and will immediately hold an emergency session with the commanders of the various MNLF units, including the Muhtalla, to chart out our strategy (in dealing with the kidnapping issue)," he said when contacted by Bernama by phone in
Zamboanga.
Misuari who is also the Regional Governor of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) had been mandated by President Joseph Estrada to establish contact and negotiate with the kidnappers to ensure the captives were released unharmed.
The captives, including 10 Malaysians, were abducted on the resort island by a group of armed men in two boats on Sunday night and were reportedly taken to a mountain hideout on the Sulu island.
The Muhtalla commander confirmed the Philippine intelligence report that the captives were brought to Talipao, a hill village some 20km from Jolo, the provincial capital of Sulu, one of the four provinces under Misuari's autonomous administration.
"Our people on the ground reported that the kidnappers arrived in Jolo with their captives on Tuesday night and immediately proceeded to the hideout where the hostages were split into two groups and held in seperate places within the vicinity," the commander said.
He also confirmed earlier reports that the kidnappers had demanded RM10 million in ransom for the release of the hostages. The demand was made through a relative of a Filipino who was among the captives.
However, he was sceptical about a foreign wire report that the kidnappers had already decided to release the 10 Malaysians, but could not proceed with the move when the boat that was supposed to take and hand them over to the authorities mulfunctioned.
"Until now I have not heard of such an initiative (by the kidnappers)...probably it was just a strategic ploy on their part," he said.
The Muhtalla commander said, if there was a need, Misuari might proceed to Jolo by a fast craft tomorrow morning to personally assess the situation and supervise the negotiation and rescue efforts.
As for his role, the commander said, in the past Misuari would pick him personally to become the mediator between the chief negotiator (Misuari) and the leader of the kidnap gang.
"For the sake of Islam, humanity and the brotherly ties between Malaysia and the Philippines, I am willing to take the risk to meet and talk things over with he kidnappers, irrespective of whether they are from the Abu Sayyaf group or plain criminals," he said.
He refused to elaborate on the course of action if the negotiation failed except to say that hostage taking was against the teachings of Islam and should be condemned or even severely retaliated.
-- BERNAMA
April 27, 2000, AsiaOne [Singapore] The New Paper, The Sipadan Hostage Crisis,
Hi, Miss... this is your terrorist speaking...
Despite the group initially claiming responsibility, there are now some doubts as to whether the Abu Sayyaf staged the Sipadan kidnapping. But the incident has raised the international profile of the Muslim militants. An anchorwoman of one of Mindanao's most popular radio stations tells The New Paper of her on-air encounter with an Abu Sayyaf spokesman
IF you could save three lives by simply accepting an invitation, would you?
Mind you, it's an offer to visit the base of a Muslim militant group on Basilan island.
The Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for attacks on Christians, including pastors.
They invited a Catholic news hound with Radio DXRZ to Camp Abu Sajak. The station broke the news that the group claimed it kidnapped 20 people from Sipadan Island.
Ms Jennie Sanson, 26, is an anchor woman in Zamboanga, at the southern tip of Mindanao, 45 minutes by speedboat to Basilan.
Ms Sanson said: "I told him (Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Ahmad Aliyuddi) not to do anything stupid to the hostages.
"He said he would release two or three of them if I go over. But I had to say no, partly because my bosses won't let me go and yes, I'm afraid."
The group took 27 people hostage from Basilan last month. On Monday, Abu Ahmad radioed her to claim responsibility for the Sipadan kidnapping.
Yet half an hour later, he said he was not confirming or denying responsibility. He was playing a guessing game with the Philippine government, he said.
Said Ms Sanson: "He wouldn't tell me why he was playing games, but said all will be revealed in a few days... within four days.
"He said he had a surprise waiting."
More than 40 lives, including those of 22 children, are hanging in the balance.
It was a terrible burden for someone so young and with only four years' experience.
"I don't go home anymore and sleep at the station. He prefers to talk to me
and we have an upfront relationship."
So why her?
"Maybe because I'm the news anchor of Mindanao's most popular radio station..."
Isn't she afraid he might harm the hostages if she provokes him?
"There wasn't an instance where he got angry with me... I used to even scold him and told him to stop doing crazy things.
• IT MUST BE be quite a strange experience when a stranger asks for your photograph. What more if he speaks for the Abu Sayyaf?
Would you feel flattered? Or frightened?
If you were Ms Sanson, you'd have little choice but to stay calm. Then decline.
"We never met. But he treats me like a good friend and calls me regularly to ask me how I'm doing. It is all very casual and we don't always talk about issues.
"I know he is a Muslim radical and I'm a Catholic, but I try not to be afraid."
Yes, she is single.
"I once told him not to tell his people to kidnap me because my parents don't have money. Believe me, he can if he wants to."
• IT ALL STARTED with a phone call on March 20, just hours after 70 people had been taken hostage on Basilan island.
The Abu Sayyaf released most of them, but kept 27, of whom 22 are children.
Ms Sanson said they invited news director (her brother) Joel Sanson and station manager Rey Dayoging to Camp Abu Sajak.
They spoke to the hostages and relayed the group's demands. The men, many dressed in military fatigues, were well-armed with machine guns and bazookas. Many were very young, barely in their teens.
For now, Ms Sanson hangs on to every call, hoping for good news.
"They have never made any threats on air.
"It is often like two friends talking and we hope the drama will end in a friendly way."
--AsiaOne
_______
ABU SAYYAF
THE Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) operates in South Philippines.
It is a radical Muslim group once led by Abdurajik Abu Bakar Janjalani, killed on Dec 18, 1998. His brother, Khadafy Janjalani, is believed to be the new leader.
His relatives have been kidnapped by a Christian vigilante group. A month after Abdurajik's death, the ASG staged bloody attacks against the police.
The Abu Sayyaf is a splinter organisation from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), a Muslim political movement.
But the MNLF is in peace talks with Manila and working with the military to track down the ASG, which is believed to be hiding on Mount Punu Mahadje in Basilan.
An intelligence website lists the group as 200-strong, many young Muslims who studied radical Islam ideology in Gulf states.
The Muslim movements want an independent Muslim state.
April 27, 2000, BBC News, Hostages 'safe' in Philippines,
17:28 GMT 18:28 UK
Philippines authorities have made direct contact with the armed kidnappers who seized 21 hostages from a Malaysian island five days ago and have confirmed they are safe and well.
The two officials - emissaries of chief negotiator in the crisis Nur Misuari - said they had seen most of the hostages, currently being held on Jolo island in southern Philippines.
"Everyone is alive and kicking," said Mr Misuari, a regional governor of an autonomous Muslim region in southern Philippines.
Mr Misuari - a former rebel chief himself with battle scars from years of fighting - warned securing the hostages release would not be that easy.
He predicted hard bargaining, saying the gunmen would hold on to their captives "tooth and nail".
"It will take a lot of persuasion...that's why I am not promising a miracle," he said.
"I intend to fall on my old repertoire of tactics and strategy."
Mr Misuari is currently in Zamboanga, a town on the southern island of Mindanao, and is expected to meet the gunmen or their representatives on Friday.
He vowed to send a strong message to the gunmen and said he would not tolerate "hanky-panky business".
Army prepared
Meanwhile, the Philippine military was preparing for a possible rescue operation to the gunmen's camp in Jolo with up to 1,000 troops deployed in nearby areas.
The military has told the kidnappers that they have nowhere to escape.
But acting armed forces chief General Jose Calimlim said that a rescue operation would not be attempted if it posed a risk to the hostages.
'No ransom'
Mr Misuari said it was the Philippine government policy not to pay ransom money.
Earlier reports said the kidnappers were demanding a $2.4m ransom for the hostages' release.
He said the kidnappers had probably picked tourists from the island of Sipadan, which lies in the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo island, because they were unable to find wealthy hostages in the southern Philippines.
"The economy is not that good," he said. "The businessmen have fled, so there aren't any suitable victims any more."
Sabah is closer to the southern Philippines than to the Malay peninsula.
Malaysians
Mr Misuari also said that the Malaysians among the hostages would be released soon.
"There was an attempt to have them [the Malaysians] released but the engine of their boat conked out on their way back to Sabah," he said.
He added that the Malaysian Government was unhappy with the situation. "They want all hostages to be treated fairly and equally."
He said in a radio interview that he was confident of securing the freedom of the remaining three Germans, two French nationals, two South Africans, two Finns, a Lebanese woman and two Filipinos.
Mr Misuari confirmed that some of the gunmen belonged to Abu Sayyaf, a militant Muslim separatist group.
Mr Misuari was himself a long-time activist in the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which dropped its 24-year armed struggle for an independent Muslim state in the southern region of Mindanao when it signed a peace treaty with the government in September 1996.
Mr Misuari said one senior MNLF aide who was set to talk with the rebels was the uncle of the man believed to be in charge of the kidnappers - Galib Andang, alias "Commander Robot".
Malaysia says it is now tightening security in the coastal region where the hostages were taken.
--BBC
April 27, 2000, Agence France-Presse, Philippines makes first contact with Muslim extremists over hostages,
JOLO, Philippines, April 27 (AFP) - Government agents have made the first contact with Muslim guerillas holding 21 people from seven nations hostage in the southern Philippines and said the captives were unharmed, officials said Thursday.
The Philippine military meanwhile gave an assurance that it would not risk endangering the lives of the Malaysian, German, French, Finnish, South African, Lebanese and Filipino hostages with a rescue attempt.
"They said everyone is alive and kicking so there is nothing to worry about except food. In order to survive they have to put up with whatever they have to. They have to learn to eat cassava," chief government negotiator Nur Misuari told reporters.
He said that Abu Sayyaf Muslim militants in their first meeting with two of his aides wanted protection of ancentral fishing grounds as part of demands for the release of the hostages who were abducted Sunday from a Malaysian resort and taken to Jolo island in the southern Philippines.
They were also seeking wide media coverage of their efforts and asked for specific coverage from the country's biggest broadcasting network, ABS-CBN.
Misuari said he not been informed of any further demands but said he would reject any cash ransom. Earlier reports said the abductors were demanding more than two million dollars.
"I don't intend to entertain any financial demand. That will encourage people to establish this industry because there is fast money there," he said in a news briefing here.
Local police said at least 17 of the hostages were hidden in separate safehouses of the Abu Sayyaf in the towns of Maimbung, Talipao, Indanan and Patikul in Jolo.
Military units have been deployed in strategic areas of this island to deter movement of the hostages and prevent their captors from linking up with other rebel units in nearby islands, military vice chief of staff
Lieutenant General Jose Calimlim said.
France and other Western governments have warned Manila against making a precipitate move which could endanger the lives of the captives.
"I am aware of the concerns of the governments of the hostages because they are after the safety of their nationals. That is our primordial objective also," Calimlim told reporters in Zamboanga.
"If it is too risky for the hostages we will not do it. We will do it through negotiations," he said.
Misuari said the gunmen "expect pursuit operations so I told them (the military) to wait," adding that his emissaries will step up their contacts with the kidnappers.
Speaking in nearby Zamboanga city, Misuari described as "not true" and "forgery" television news reports in Manila that eight of the nine Malaysian hostages in the group had been freed.
Misuari said he received information that the Asian hostages might be released earlier, stressing that the captors eyed higher ransoms from the Western captives.
"I heard from scattered information that they were thinking of reducing the number of people in their possession. It's not easy to keep 21 people especially in a small town."
Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon said a Finnish male hostage "is sickly" and "needs medication" for an unspecified ailment, adding that "he cannot last" under captivity.
Siazon told reporters the national government has instructed Misuari that Manila would be more willing to discuss "community development" for the Muslim communities in the south, which are among the poorest areas in the country.
"It's a suggestion that our ability to negotiate on demands is really limited -- that we will not give cash. Now if you are talking about community development efforts, that's another story."
The Abu Sayyaf, with about several hundred armed followers, is the smaller of two Muslim separatist rebel groups in the south.
Government troops are mounting a five day-old air and ground assault on an Abu Sayyaf camp on nearby Basilan island to force the rebels to free at least 27 Filipino hostages.
The government had rejected the gunmen's offer to swap their Basilan captives for Ramzi Yousef, the convicted mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York who is serving a life term in a US jail.
--AFP
April 27 , 2000, Bernama, Misuari Vows to Work For Release of Captives,
22:00PM
MANILA, April 27 (Bernama) -- Muslim Mindanao Governor Nur Misuari said today he will exert his best efforts for the speedy release of the 21 hostages held captive by kidnappers in Sulu province.
"I intend to use my old repertoire of tactics and strategies in dealing with this hostage situation. I want to proceed from a position of strength psychologically and even militarily," he told a news conference, here.
The kidnappers, reportedly belonging to the extremist Abu Sayyaf Group, had demanded 10 million ringgit in exchange for the freedom of the hostages, many of them foreign tourists.
Misuari warned that he would mobilise his "Bangsa Moro Army" to put a stop to kidnappings.
He heads the Moro National Liberation Front which had sealed a peace pact with the government in 1996 to end its separatist war in southern Philippines.
"I will not tolerate any kidnap for ransom. I don't want society to fall victim to kidnapping or become hostages," Misuari said.
He said that as President Joseph Estrada's special negotiator, "I would do my level best to expedite the release of the hostages."
He said that in an administrative order, President Estrada gave him a "general and comprehensive" mandate to deal with the hostage takers.
Misuari said Estrada had also instructed the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippines National Police to cooperate with him to ensure the welfare and safety of the hostages.
He said the Lebanese government, through the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), had also requested the Philippines that he be appointed negotiator for the release of the hostages, one of whome is a Lebanese woman.
In the incident on Sunday night, a group of six men armed with AK47 assault rifles and a rocket launcher abducted 21 people, including 11 foreign tourists, on the island and took them away in a boat.
Misuari, a separatist leader turned bureaucrat, has had a good track record in negotiating the safe release of kidnap victims in Mindanao.
He was responsible for the release of two Spanish nuns and two German nationals abducted in separate incidents several years ago.
According to Misuari, he was also involved in several negotiations abroad that also led to the safe release of hostages.
-- BERNAMA
April 27 , 2000, Bernama, Sipadan: Nur Misuari to Meet Emissary of Kidnappers Tomorrow,
22:49PM
KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 (Bernama) -- Nur Misuari, who was given the mandate to negotiate with the armed group which kidnapped 21 people in Sipadan island off Sabah last Sunday, will meet the emissary of the kidnappers tomorrow morning.
Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) information chief Ibrahim Omar said Misuari was now in Zamboanga City and would hold a meeting with the commanders of the various MNLF units.
Misuari, who is also Governor of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) had been mandated by President Joseph Estrada to establish contact and negotiate with the kidnappers to ensure that the captives are released unharmed.
Ibrahim told Bernama when contacts in Manila tonight that at the moment, the two MNLF military officers who had made contact with the armed group were still negotiating with the kidnappers.
In last Sunday's incident, six men armed with AK-47 rifles and a bazooka kidnapped 10 Malaysians, three Germans, two French nationals, two Finns, two South Africans, a Lebanese and a Filipino.
Asked if any of the captives had been released, he said that according to the latest information given by the two military officers, none of them had been released.
-- BERNAMA
April 27, 2000, Agence France-Presse, Kidnapping only growth industry on hostage island,
JOLO, Philippines, April 27 (AFP) - 20:40 - A sleepy rural community sprang into life in this southern Philippines island this week when the local warlord returned home after a nine-day sortie in the high seas -- with several foreign hostages in tow.
The new arrivals offer the promise of money and jobs for one of the poorest areas of the country: armed guards for the captives, lookouts for the random military patrols, and laying booby traps to deter rescue attempts.
After nearly three decades of intermittent armed conflict, ransom kidnappings are one of the few growth industries to emerge in many areas of the Muslim-populated southwestern Philippines.
It was only logical that when masked armed men snatched 21 people including 10 western holidaymakers from the Sipadan resort island in Malaysia off Borneo on Sunday, the authorities should come looking for them in Jolo, about 400 kilometers (248 miles) away in the Celebes Sea.
They were not disappointed.
"One of the commanders was absent for nine days and when he came back he was with six white men," said Nur Misuari, governor of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao and a former rebel leader who has been assigned to negotiate with the kidnappers.
According to local police, Jolo and the 156 other islands of the Sulu group near Borneo are bristling with guns -- "four times" its half million residents, provincial police chief Senior Superintendent Candido Casimiro told.
"In a Tausug (the local Muslim regional grouping) family, even the women and children have guns."
Many of the men are formerly with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), Misuari's separatist movement which signed a peace treaty with the government in 1996 in exchange for limited Muslim self-rule.
Some have since joined the Abu Sayyaf, the extremist Muslim group implicated in the Malaysian kidnappings, while the rest are believed to be engaged in banditry under the "Lost Commands" of other former rebel leaders-turned warlords.
"I don't like any ransom," Misuari said. "That will encourage people to establish this industry because there is fast money there -- faster than fastfood retail."
It should help that one of Misuari's most trusted aides is a relative of the local Abu Sayyaf commander.
He said 60 percent of the autonomous region's population live in poverty with potential investors put off by the armed presence of Abu Sayyaf and another, larger separatist group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
The harsh economic realities put the kidnappings into perspective.
"They have the hottest commodity in their hand. It's a very expensive commodity. I think they will cling to these people in order to optimize their gains," Misuari said of the Abu Sayyaf's recent hostage-taking.
Jolo intelligence operatives say the kidnapping industry involves virtually the entire population.
Gunmen recently went around town to hire lookouts and armed recruits, with daily wage offers of 3,000 to 5,000 pesos (73-121 dollars) -- equivalent to a month's wages in those areas, one intelligence official told AFP.
He said the warlords will only heed entreaties when coupled with the threat of superior force -- something which a Tausug like Misuari understands.
"I intend to fall on my old repertoire of tactics and strategy in dealing with this. I want a position of strength psychologically and even militarily," Misauri said, explaining he would mobilize up to 3,000 former guerrillas to put pressure on the kidnappers.
"I would like to send a strong message to all concerned. I don't want hanky-panky."
--AFP
April 27, 2000, Associated Press, Kidnappers make ransom demand after hostage grab on Malaysian resort, Web posted at: 7:01 a.m. HKT (2301 GMT)
JOLO, Philippines (AP) -- The gunmen who grabbed 21 hostages on a Malaysian resort island will soon free two Malaysians and are demanding a $2.4 million ransom for the release of the others, police said Wednesday.
The hostages, including at least 10 non-Malaysians, were being held in Sulu, a remote province in the southern Philippines, government officials said.
A senior police official in Sulu, who spoke on condition of anonymity, disclosed the $2.4 million ramsom demand and said the kidnappers would release the two Malaysians because they are Muslim.
The kidnappers are members of the Abu Sayyaf, an extremist Muslim rebel group, said Nur Misuari, a former Muslim rebel leader who now heads a Muslim autonomous region in the southern Philippines. They took the hostages Sunday on Sipadan Island -- a famous diving site about one hour by boat from Sulu.
The Abu Sayyaf is the smaller of two groups fighting for an independent Islamic state in the predominantly Catholic Philippines. They are under attack at their stronghold in nearby Basilan province by Philippine troops attempting to rescue 27 other hostages kidnapped more than five weeks ago.
The kidnappings, the worst the Philippines has experienced in years, have drawn attention to the country's long-simmering Muslim rebellion.
Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado, who visited Sulu Wednesday, said the hostages have been divided into several groups and are being moved around the town of Talipao, a mountainous area about 12 miles from Jolo, Sulu's capital.
Presidential Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora, however, said he was told by a former Muslim rebel leader that some of the hostages are also in Tawi Tawi, a nearby province.
He said President Joseph Estrada has appointed Nur Misuari, head of the Moro National Liberation Front, as the government's negotiator with the kidnappers. The MNLF, once the country's largest Muslim rebel group, signed a peace treaty in 1996.
Officials are still not certain if the Muslim group Abu Sayyaf is responsible for the kidnapping ordeal on Sipadan Island Mercado said government officials have had no direct contact with the kidnappers and have not heard their demands.
The Abu Sayyaf's local commander in Sulu, Galid Andang, is suspected of having masterminded the kidnappings of three Hong Kong fishery workers in 1998 and a businessman freed in January after being held for 70 days, the military says.
The current ordeal began Sunday when six men armed with AK-47s and a rocket launcher ransacked a resort on Sipadan Island on Sunday, grabbing hostages.
An American couple, James and Mary Murphy of Rochester, N.Y., escaped by refusing to swim out to the kidnappers' boats and then hiding in bushes.
The hostages include tourists from Germany, France, South Africa, Finland and Lebanon. They also include a Filipino worker and nine Malaysians, authorities said. The nationality of the 21st hostage was not known. Seas in the area, flanked by the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia, are speckled with hundreds of islands and crisscrossed by traders, migrants, pirates and smugglers.
The Abu Sayyaf has been accused of involvement in many previous kidnappings, extortion and attacks against Christians.
The Philippine military pounded several Abu Sayyaf camps with rockets, Tuesday, in an attempt to free the 27 hostages who have been in captivity for five weeks
On Tuesday, a spokesman at the rebels' Basilan mountain stronghold initially claimed responsibility for the abductions but later said he was uncertain whether the group was involved.
Five more people were arrested today in Sabah, a Malaysian state on northern Borneo, police said, bringing to 10 the number of people under interrogation in the hostage-taking. Police officials said some of those arrested were former Sipadan resort employees. They were suspected of knowing some of the gunmen or helping them.
At the Abu Sayyaf stronghold in the Philippines, meanwhile, troops continued to pound several outlying camps in an attempt to free the remaining Filipino hostages, mostly schoolchildren.
At least 10 rebels and five soldiers have died in the assault, which has been slowed by steep terrain, dense vegetation, and concern about the hostages' safety.
Last week, the rebels announced they had beheaded two of their adult hostages. They have threatened to behead five more if the military does not halt the assault, which began Saturday.
The group has demanded freedom for three men jailed in the United States, including Ramzi Yousef, the alleged mastermind of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, accused of conspiring to blow up New York City landmarks.
Elsewhere in the Philippines, army troops captured a newly established Muslim rebel camp after fierce fighting that killed at least 26 guerrillas, Army Col. Samuel Bagasin said today.
An army major hoisted a Philippine flag on a wooden pole and gave it a salute after troops captured the Moro Islamic Liberation Front camp in Pacalundo in southern Lanao del Norte's Balo-i town on Tuesday, he said.
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
April 27, 2000, The Star Online [Malaysia], Sighted: Sipadan hostages split up, then reunited on Sulu island,
Thursday,
SEMPORNA: The 21 Pulau Sipadan hostages were taken to Sulu island in the Philippines after their abductors split them up into groups to evade detection.
The hostages had been sighted in various parts of the southern Philippines over the past 48 hours, but Press Undersecretary at the Malacanang presidential palace Noel Cabrera told The Star yesterday that the hostages were reunited in Sulu island at about 6pm yesterday.
"We have received numerous reports of ransoms and demands but these are all unconfirmed," added said.
A 90-member special Malaysian action force backed by soldiers was in position in various islands around here to beef up security as the hostage drama entered its fifth day today. No direct official contact by either by the Malaysian authorities or the Philippine military with the purported extremist gunmen has been made though a breakthrough is anticipated in the next few days.
Police and Wisma Putra officials are keeping all channels open to ensure the safe return of the hostages, including 10 foreigners, who were abducted from Sipadan island by six heavily armed gunmen on Sunday night.
Police were tightlipped over what could happen in the next 48 hours as Malaysian and Filipino authorities find a way to secure the release of the hostages unharmed.
Contradictory reports of the sightings of the hostages and unclear demands, supposedly made by the Abu Sayyaf separatist group, have put families of the victims in a state of confusion.
One of those reports was by the Associated Press that the kidnappers would soon free two of the Malaysians.
Quoting Philippines police informants, the news agency said the kidnappers were asking for US$2.4mil (RM9.12mil) in ransom for the release of the others.
Cabrera also said that the Philippine Government had not made any contact with the hostage-takers, adding that the governor of the autonomous region of Muslim Mindanao Nur Misuari had offered his assistance in resolving the hostage situation.
He said President Joseph Estrada had welcomed Misuari's offer.
In the morning, Sulu provincial governor Abdusakur Tan said the hostages were on his island, about 100 nautical miles from the southern Philippine city of Zamboanga.
Other Philippine government officials said eight of the hostages were spotted by fishermen and farmers in an area between the Sulu towns of Talipao and Maimbung at dawn on Tuesday.
The officials said they subsequently received word that the eight hostages were split into two groups, five being kept near Talipao and the others at Patikul, some 20km away.
They said that the 13 other hostages who were initially taken to Basilan island, some 30 nautical miles from Zamboanga, were brought to Sulu yesterday afternoon.
All 21 hostages were at a village called Samar, in the outskirts of Talipao, in the afternoon, they said.
"They are probably with Galib Andang," said Abdusakur Tan, referring to the local Abu Sayyaf group commander.
Although the Philippine military is said to be guarding the area, Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon said no military action had been planned for now.
"We are in negotiation mode," he added.
The Philippine officials said based on information from various agencies, they had been able piece together the movements of the gunmen and hostages since Sunday night.
Zamboanga officials said the gunmen and the hostages had been island-hopping, moving only at night to avoid detection.
They said that from Sipadan, the gunmen with the hostages sped into Philippine waters in two boats and stopped briefly at Setingkai, on Tawi Tawi island, to refuel.
They continued to Pilas island near Basilan where the hostages were split into two groups.
The Abu Sayyaf group has been under attack by the Filipino military at its Basilan camp, where it has been holding 27 schoolchildren and teachers for nearly a month.
It is not know if the Sipadan abductors are connected to the Abu Sayyaf group.
--The Star, Malaysia
April 27, 2000, Associated Press, Hostages taken from resort held in remote part of Philippines,
MALAYSIA KIDNAPPERS DEMAND RANSOM
JOLO, Philippines, April 26 - The gunmen who abducted 21 hostages on a Malaysian resort island will soon free two Malaysians and are demanding a $2.4 million ransom for the release of the others, police said Wednesday.
THE HOSTAGES, including at least 10 foreigners, were being held in Sulu, a remote province in the southern Philippines, government officials said. A senior police official in Sulu, who spoke on condition of anonymity, disclosed the $2.4 million ransom demand and said the kidnappers would release the two Malaysians because they are Muslim.
The kidnappers are members of the Abu Sayyaf, an extremist Muslim rebel group, said Nur Misuari, a former Muslim rebel leader who now heads a Muslim autonomous region in the southern Philippines. They took the hostages Sunday on Sipadan Island - a famous diving site about one hour by boat from Sulu.
The Abu Sayyaf is the smaller of two groups fighting for an independent Islamic state in the predominantly Catholic Philippines. They are under attack at their stronghold in nearby Basilan province by Philippine troops attempting to rescue 27 other hostages kidnapped more than five weeks ago.
KIDNAPPINGS AND REBELLION
The kidnappings, the worst the Philippines has experienced in years, have drawn attention to the country's long-simmering Muslim rebellion. Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado, who visited Sulu Wednesday, said the hostages have been divided into several groups and are being moved around the town of Talipao, a mountainous area about 12 miles from Jolo, Sulu's capital.
Presidential Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora, however, said he was told by a former Muslim rebel leader that some of the hostages are also in Tawi Tawi, a nearby province. He said President Joseph Estrada has appointed Nur Misuari, head of the Moro National Liberation Front, as the government's negotiator with the kidnappers. The MNLF, once the country's largest Muslim rebel group, signed a peace treaty in 1996. Mercado said government officials have had no direct contact with the kidnappers and have not heard their demands.
The Abu Sayyaf's local commander in Sulu, Galid Andang, is suspected of having masterminded the kidnappings of three Hong Kong fishery workers in 1998 and a businessman freed in January after being held for 70 days, the military says. The current ordeal began Sunday when six men armed with AK-47s and a rocket launcher ransacked a resort on Sipadan Island on Sunday, taking hostages. An American couple, James and Mary Murphy of Rochester, N.Y., escaped by refusing to swim out to the kidnappers' boats and then hiding in bushes. The hostages include tourists from Germany, France, South Africa, Finland and Lebanon. They also include a Filipino worker and nine Malaysians, authorities said. The nationality of the 21st hostage was not known.
REMOTE REGION KNOWN FOR PIRATES
Seas in the area, flanked by the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia, are speckled with hundreds of islands and crisscrossed by traders, migrants, pirates and smugglers. The Abu Sayyaf has been accused of involvement in many previous kidnappings, extortion and attacks against Christians.
On Tuesday, a spokesman at the rebels' Basilan mountain stronghold initially asserted responsibility for the abductions but later said he was uncertain whether the group was involved. Five more people were arrested Wednesday in Sabah, a Malaysian state on northern Borneo, police said, bringing to 10 th enumber of people under interrogation in the hostage-taking. Police officials said some of those arrested were former Sipadan resort employees. They were suspected of knowing some of the gunmen or helping them.
SECOND HOSTAGE DRAMA CONTINUES
At the Abu Sayyaf stronghold in the Philippines, meanwhile, troops continued to pound several outlying camps in an attempt to free the remaining Filipino hostages, mostly schoolchildren.
At least 10 rebels and five soldiers have died in the assault, which has been slowed by steep terrain, dense vegetation, and concern about the hostages' safety. Last week, the rebels announced they had beheaded two of their adult hostages. They have threatened to behead five more if the military does not halt the assault, which began Saturday. The group has demanded freedom for three men jailed in the United States, including Ramzi Yousef, the alleged mastermind of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and Sheik Omar Ablel-Rahman, accused of conspiring to blow up New York City landmarks.
Elsewhere in the Philippines, army troops captured a newly established Muslim rebel camp after fierce fighting that killed at least 26 guerrillas, Army Col. Samuel Bagasin said Wednesday. An army major hoisted a Philippine flag on a wooden pole and gave it a salute after troops captured the Moro Islamic Liberation Front camp in Pacalundo in southern Lanao del Norte's Balo-i town on Tuesday, he said.
© 2000 Associated Press.
April 27, 2000, Bernama, Operations Centre Set Up Following Sipadan Incident,
09:37AM
KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 (Bernama) -- A 24-hour operation centre has been set here following the abduction of 21 Malaysians and foreigners by gunmen in Sipadan Island on Sunday night.
The National Security Division, Prime Minister's Department said it is managing the centre with the cooperation of police and the information, defence and foreign ministries.
The centre, which commenced operations this morning, is responsible for handling visits to the island by relatives of the captives, members offoreign diplomatic missions and tourists.
It also serves as the coordinating centre and media centre, according to a statement last night.
The centre is operating from the National Security Council Operations Room at 6th Floor, Block D, Prime Minister's Department, Jalan Datuk Onn. (Tel: 03-2588704/2936862, fax:03-2936863, e-mail: u...@bkn.jpm.my).
A similar centre is located at the National Security Division, 26M, 6th Floor, Blocks D and E, Bangunan KWSP, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. (Tel: 088-247149, fax: 088-2411052).
The statement said foreign journalists wishing to go to the island must first obtain a press accrediation card from the Information Department, 7th Floor, Wisma Bernama, Jalan Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur. (Tel: 03-2988235 or 03-29883355 (ext241), fax: 03-2984162, e-mail: re ...@penerangan.gov.my).
Foreign journalists already in Sabah may apply for the card from the department at 9th Floor, Wisma Dang Bandang, Kota Kinabalu. (Tel: 088-280600, fax: 088-217031).
-- BERNAMA (Malaysia's National News Agency)
April 27, 2000, New Straits Times, Hostages Taken to Different Places,
SEMPORNA, Wed. - The twenty-one hostages, including 12 foreigners, who were taken at gunpoint from Pulau Sipadan on Sunday are believed to be held at different locations.
Sources said this was one possible scenario.
Without elaborating, the source said that the crisis management team had been in touch with Philippine authorities to discuss follow-up actions.
Checks by the New Straits Times on Sunday revealed that following that incident, the authorities had learnt that the heavily armed kidnappers were holed up on an island within Malaysia's territorial waters.
A rescue operation was immediately initiated and was to have been executed under the cover of darkness early yesterday.
Observers told the NST that for the first time in many years, night landings took place at Tawau airport, with the first on Monday.
Ruling out commercial aircraft, an observer said military tranports touched down at the airport, butthere was no military movement outside the airport perimeter.
The joint rescue operation was to have been carried out by the Royal Malaysian Navy's elite Special Forces, Paskal and police's Special Task Force.
(To date, there has been no official confirmation on the team's presence here.)
However, after it was made public that the location of the hostage-takers had been pinpointed, the operation was aborted for obvious reasons.
"News broadcasts had reached the hostage-takers and they immediately sped off with the hostages in tow, reportedly to seek refuge in Philippine territory," the source said.
Now, the source added, authorities were back to "square one" in seeking an amicable solution to the incident which has attracted international attention.
"However, whatever action initiated will only be executed with the hostages' safety being of utmost importance."
Reports said that the kidnappers had been located on Jolo, which is one ofthe largest islands in the Sulu group.
Just before dusk today, plainclothed men were spotted boarding amphibious craft at the jetty.
Witnesses said the men, numbering more than 20, loaded assault rifles and other equipment used by special forces personnel onto the craft before speeding off to an undisclosed destination.
As the kidnapping incident enters its fourth day, the fate of the hostages remains in the balance. While there have been conflicting reports about those responsible for the incident, no one has yet to come forward with demands.
April 27 , 2000, Bernama, Bernama, Misuari's men make contact with sipadan kidnappers, by E Sivabalan,
14:58PM
KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 (Bernama) -- Two top military officers of Nur Misuari's Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) have made contact with the armed group which kidnapped 21 people in Sipadan island off Sabah last Sunday.
According to MNLF information chief Ibrahim Omar, attempts have been made to free the 21 people, including 10 Malaysians, now held captive in Talipao, a municipality in the southern Philippine province of Jolo.
"They are being held in one place in Talipao," Ibrahim told Bernama when contacted in Manila today.
Ibrahim said this was the latest information given to Misuari by the two military officers Misuari sent to negotiate with the kidnappers. Ibrahim said Philippine President Joseph Estrada gave Misuari, the Governor of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in southern Philippines, the mandate to negotiate with the kidnappers.
Apart from the 10 Malaysians, the other captives are three Germans, two French, two South Africans, two Finns, one Lebanese and a Filipino.
Ibrahim said Misuarim who is now in Manila, would be flying to Zamboanga later today and then to Jolo.
Asked if Misuari would be meeting with the kidnappers, Ibrahim said: "If there is a need."
He said that at the moment, the two military officers were negotiating with the kidnappers.
On Misuari's statement yesterday that the 10 Malaysian nationals might be released soon, Ibrahim said: "We cannot confirm if they have been released."
Misuari was quoted as saying that the Malaysians "could be released soon under separate negotiations".
-- BERNAMA
April 27, 2000, Reuters, Faulty boat blocks release of Malaysian hostages,
01:16:00 ET
MANILA, April 27 (Reuters) - Ten Malaysians among 21 hostages held by gunmen in the southern Philippines were to have been released but a boat due to take them home broke down, a Filipino Moslem leader said on Thursday.
"There was an attempt to have them (the Malaysians) released but the engine of their boat conked out on their way back to Sabah (East Malaysia)," Nur Misuari told Reuters.
Misuari, a former guerrilla leader who is now governor of a semi-autonomous Moslem region in the southern Philippines, did not say when the attempted release occurred.
"But the Malaysian government is not happy with this," he said. "They want all hostages to be treated fairly and equally. The Malaysian government does not want a separate negotiation for their people."
Gunmen believed to be Filipinos seized the Malaysians and 11 other people, including 10 foreign tourists, from the Sipadan diving resort in Malaysian Borneo on Sunday and took them to Jolo in the Sulu archipelago.
Apart from the Malaysians, the hostages are three Germans, two French, two South Africans, two Finns, one Lebanese and a Filipino.
Misuari was to fly to Jolo later on Thursday to try to open negotiations with the kidnappers for the release of the hostages.
Asked why the kidnappers tried to release the Malaysians ahead of the others, Misuari said: "They are just workers. They don't have anything to pay them."
Philippine Defence Secretary Orlando said the kidnap gang was a mixture of Abu Sayyaf rebels and former guerrillas turned bandit.
Misuari is also chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which was previously the biggest Moslem separatist group in the southern Philippines until it signed a peace deal with Manila in 1996.
--ABC
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