| Libya offers $25-M ransom for
hostages BEIRUT, Lebanon—Libya is ready to pay Philippine Muslim rebels $25
million in ransom to gain the release of 29 hostages, including a French woman of Arab
origin, being held since April, a Lebanese newspaper reported Saturday.
The leading
Beirut daily An-Nahar said Seif al-Islam, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s son, sent
an emissary to Manila to try for a deal.
It said the envoy,
Mohammed Ismail, contacted the Lebanese Embassy in Tokyo, Japan, and expressed “full
readiness” to pay a ransom of $1 million to gain the release of Marie Moarbes, a
Lebanese-French woman, as first priority.
According to the
report, which did not identify its sources, Ismail also told the Lebanese mission that
Libya is willing to pay $24 million for the release of the remaining hostages, adding that
in the case of release, the men and women would be encouraged to visit Tripoli to thank
the Gadhafis.
Calls to the
embassy in Tokyo on Saturday were not answered.
Tradeoff
The report said a
former Libyan ambassador to Manila, Rajab Razouk, was on Jolo island in Sulu negotiating
with the kidnappers and that Ismail was awaiting word from him to begin the tradeoff.
Since taking power
in a 1969 coup, Gadhafi has been supportive of Muslim, nationalist and leftist rebel
groups around the world.
No word of such an
offer has been reported in Libya’s official media.
Lebanese
diplomatic sources said the government has not received official information about a
possible Libyan ransom, but did not rule it out.
The sources,
speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that Lebanon had asked Libya
earlier on the hostage ordeal to intercede with the Abu Sayyaf group with which it had
contacts.
Moarbes’
plight attracted media attention in Lebanon by virtue of her Lebanese background. The
An-Nahar newspaper on Friday launched a campaign for donations to pay Moarbes’ ransom
by putting $10,000 into a fund it set up. A full-page ad read “Contribute To Saving
Her” above a picture of Moarbes and a masked kidnapper.
The Abu Sayyaf, a
loose collection of several hundred armed Muslim rebels, has demanded $1 million for each
Western hostage. Six French, three Malaysians, two Germans, two Finns, two South Africans
and 14 Filipinos also are being held.
No-ransom
The Philippine
government’s chief negotiator, Robert Aventajado, has said Manila will continue to
follow an official no-ransom policy, although he is widely believed to have permitted
others to pay money for the hostages’ freedom.
Twenty-one
hostages were kidnapped by Muslim rebels of the Abu Sayyaf group on April 23 from Sipadan
Island, a Malaysian diving resort, and brought to impoverished Jolo island in the southern
Philippines by boat.
--AP
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