Governor Sakur joins a police patrol in the town of Jolo in the southern Filipino island of Sulu, where suspected Abu Sayyaf militants seized January 15, 2009 three aid workers - a Swiss national Andreas Notyter, Italian Eugenio Vagni and Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba - who are working for the Internatioanl Commiittee of the Red Cross. (Mindanao Examiner Photo)
SULU, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 22, 2009) – Filipino troops continue to search for three aid workers kidnapped in the southern island of Sulu as the rescue operation entered its second week with no signs of the hostages.
The three – Swiss national Andreas Notter, Italian Eugenio Vagni and Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba – are being held by Abu Sayyaf militants with links to the Indonesian terror group Jemaah Islamiya.
They were seized January 15 in Patikul town after inspecting a water and sanitation project a prison facility. A dismissed jail guard was also implicated in the kidnapping, police said, quoting reports from witnesses.
The International Committee of the Red Cross to which the victims are working for is calling for the unconditional release of the hostages.
“I appeal to those who are holding Mary-Jean, Andreas and Eugenio to let them go as quickly as possible,” Alain Aeschlimann, the ICRC's head of operations for East Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific in Geneva, said on Thursday. “We want to have them back safe and sound. Their children, spouses, parents, siblings and loved ones are anxious and waiting for them to come home.”The ICRC has been in contact with the three staff members several times since they were kidnapped and the last time the three were able to call was on January 19. ”We hope that we'll hear their voices again soon and that they remain unharmed,” Aeschlimann said. “We also continue to hope that this difficult situation will have a positive outcome.”
The ICRC said it has no direct contacts with the kidnappers and ruled out paying ransom in exchange for the safe release of the victims.
But Sulu Governor Sakur Tan, head of the local crisis task force, said the kidnappers were probably dictating the hostages on what to tell the ICRC. “The victims should not allow themselves become the mouthpiece of the kidnappers,” he said.
Tan said the Task Force-ICRC, composed of the military, police and provincial and national government agencies, are working hard to resolve the crisis soon.
“The task force is still strategizing its move to safely recover the innocent victims and to end this kidnapping incident soon. We cannot reveal tactical matters because this could jeopardize the whole efforts of the task force,” he said.
Tan also appealed to the media not to speculate or report false information about the kidnapping crisis. “Every false report adds to the burden of anxious families (of the hostages). We want to assure the families that we are doing everything to resolve this problem,” he said.
Foreign media, which quoted unnamed Filipino military officials, have reported last week the kidnappers demanded $5 million ransom, but the ICRC denied this.
“As far as I am aware, they are false rumors. We have not had any direct contact with the people who are holding Mary-Jean, Eugenio and Andreas. That said, the ICRC cannot just disregard rumors like this. We are doing our best to check on their possible accuracy through a range of contacts,” said Jean-Daniel Tauxe, ICRC’s head of delegation in Manila.
“This is obviously a high-profile case and there is a lot of media attention surrounding it. Sometimes, it can be difficult to separate fact from fiction. What we know for sure is that the three are alive, and we want their safe return. I am not in a position to comment further as I do not want to jeopardize our colleagues’ safety, nor do I want to speculate on rumors. That simply wouldn’t be helpful,” Tauxe said.
“In addition, in these times of instantaneous worldwide communication, we are very concerned about the effect that rumors, conveyed by media, may have on the families of our kidnapped colleagues. Because of the time difference, and the difficulty for the families living in other parts of the world to understand aspects of the incident relating specifically to the Philippines, our colleagues at Geneva headquarters are doing their best to protect the families from the incredible stress that rumors can unleash. Here in the Philippines we are trying to do the same thing for the family of our Filipina colleague,” he said.
Authorities said the hostages are being held by Abu Sayyaf leaders Albader Parad and Abu Pula, who were both former Moro National Liberation Front rebels. (Mindanao Examiner)
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