Captors make their demands

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE, MAY 14. With the crisis over the continued captivity of 21 international hostages in southern Philippines entering the fourth week, the group holding them communicated its demands to the negotiators even as a Malaysian in its custody today appealed to Kuala Lumpur to put pressure on Manila to desist from military action that could endanger the lives of the kidnap-victims.

The negotiators, including a former Libyan diplomat and a Filipino, would meet the Philippines President, Mr. Joseph Estrada, tomorrow discuss the demands made by the batch of hostage-takers. While the indication from Manila today was that the demands appeared to be worthwhile for an evaluation by the Filipino Government, there was no authoritative word on the exact scope and substance of the conditions set by the hostage-takers in question, a suspected faction of the `Abu Sayyaf' Muslim rebels of the southern Philippines.

As all the 21, abducted on April 23 from a diving resort at Sipadan island off the Sabah coastline of Malaysia, remained accounted for, confusion continued to prevail in regard to yesterday's suspected kidnapping of an estimated number of 170 Filipinos by the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), an Islamic separatist group operating independently of the `Abu Sayyaf group' in the southern parts of a predominantly Catholic Philippines. The latest word from Manila in this regard was that the MNNLF did not openly claim responsibility for the suspected abduction, and this raised doubts as to whether or not a fresh case of abduction had indeed occurred.

It was against this background that the appeal by a Malaysian being held among the international hostages was made public in Kuala Lumpur today. The authorities quoted the Malaysian, an official of a state government, as appealing to the Filipino military units to withdraw immediately from the vicinity of the camp of the rebels holding him and others on the Jolo island of southern Philippines.

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Section  : International
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