Italy makes contact with Sayyaf hostage in Sulu

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Apr. 02, 2009) – Three Red Cross workers kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf terrorists are all alive, according to the Italian Foreign Ministry on Thursday.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said they were able to talk to Italian Eugenio Vagni, one of the hostages. “They are alive according to information in our possession,” he said.

Vagni and Swiss national Andreas Notter and Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba, who work for the International Committee of the Red Cross, were kidnapped January 15 after inspecting a humanitarian project at a prison in Patikul town.

Unconfirmed reports in Sulu on Wednesday said the Abu Sayyaf shot Notter in the head and killed or probably injured after he tried to escape from his captors. Journalists covering the hostage crisis in Sulu also received the same reports from this cell phone number +639277083148.

Marine Lt. Gen. Nelson Allaga, commander of military forces in-charge of rescuing the hostages, said the reports of Notter’s death could be part of the strategy of the Abu Sayyaf to divert the attention of the authorities.

Allaga said all the hostages are probably alive. “It’s difficult to believe every single report in Sulu at this time, but there are indications all the hostages are still alive,” he told the Mindanao Examiner. (Mindanao Examiner)