Abu Sayyaf wants $25m for
remaining hostagesJOLO, (ABS-CBN) -
Abu Sayyaf bandits are demanding $25 million for the release of more than a dozen
hostages, government intelligence sources said on Wednesday.
This developed as defense secretary Orlando Mercado said that international
terrorist Osama bin Laden has funded the Muslim extremist group.
Five leaders of the Abu Sayyaf agreed to the ransom although it is not
clear whether they expect the whole amount to be paid at once or in installments.
The group is now discussing how the money will be delivered to them, the
sources said.
The proposed $25-million ransom will cover three Malaysians, two Germans,
two French and two Finnish nationals, two South Africans, two Filipinos, and a
Franco-Lebanese woman seized from a Malaysian resort and taken across the sea border to
Jolo, Sulu last April 23.
The ransom will also cover three French television reporters who ventured
to the Abu Sayyaf's hideout last July 9 to interview the hostages.
In addition, the ransom will also cover 12 Filipino evangelists of the
Jesus Miracle Crusade who have been in the Abu Sayyaf jungle hideout for more than a
month, the sources said.
Thirteen evangelists originally went to the Abu Sayyaf lair to "pray
over" the hostages, but one has been released reportedly to pursue the bandits'
ransom demand.
Three Filipino laborers seized by an Abu Sayyaf faction last week are not
covered by the $25-million ransom demand, the sources said.
On Monday, Armed Forces chief of staff Gen. Angelo Reyes confirmed reports
that a P245-million had been paid to the Abu Sayyaf in exchange for six Malaysians, five
Filipinos, and a German woman despite Manila's policy against ransom payments.
The agreement on a total ransom for almost all hostages surfaced, as an
aide of Libyan mediator Rajab Azzarouq arrived in Jolo secretly on Tuesday.
The aide, Mohamad Ismail, was fetched from a ferry by unknown armed men and
escorted out of town, a correspondent from the Agence France Presse news agency witnessed.
Local authorities said they had no advance warning of Ismail's visit and
only learned about it later.
It has been reported that Lebanon supposedly accepted an offer from Libya
to pay $25 million for all the hostages, with priority to be given to Franco-Lebanese
captive Marie Moarbes.
However,
Aventajado said they would have to coordinate with him for any such agreement.
Contacted by telephone about the reported $25-million ransom demand,
Azzarouq only said: "That's incredible".
He said he would be returning to Jolo soon but did not give details.
For his part, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. urged Malacañang to stop a
reported Libyan offer to pay $25 million to the Abu Sayyaf.
He said the government should view the alleged ransom offer with grave
concern despite Azzarouq's denial.
"Sometimes, what is denied officially can be done unofficially,"
Pimentel said.
Officials earlier said the Philippine government was sticking to its
no-ransom polity but that other parties could not be prevented from paying ransom.
Pimentel said $25 million can buy the Abu Sayyaf sophisticated weapons and
put many urban areas at risk.
Meanwhile, Mercado said he could not reveal military information detailing
the link between Bin Laden and the Abu Sayyaf but remarked that "in recent years,
they were receiving funds from the terrorist."
He also said that the Abu Sayyaf had been "boasting" of their
connection with Bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi Arabian dissident living in Afghanistan and
wanted by the United States for masterminding a terrorist attack on two US embassies in
east Africa in 1998 which killed 224 people.
Mercado was reacting to a newspaper report quoting a former member of the
Abu Sayyaf as saying that Bin Laden and his brother-in-law Mohammad Jamal Khalifa set up
the International Islamic Relief Organization in 1992 as a front for funding extremist
groups.
The Abu Sayyaf member, identified only as Abu Anzar, said the IIRP worked
under the Muslim World League, an organization supported by the Saudi Arabian government.
Anzar said the relief organization, in the guise of giving charity to local
Muslim communities, provided funds to the Abu Sayyaf for arms acquisition.
He also said Bin Laden and Khalifa funded the "urban warfare and
terrorist training in Libya " of members of the Abu Sayyaf.
"Whether the money was used for bombings, or kidnappings, Bin Laden
did not complain," Anzar said.
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