Top Abu Sayyaf kidnappers seek Libyan
sanctuary: report
MANILA, Aug 18 (AFP) - Top Abu
Sayyaf guerrillas holding hostages in the southern Philippines have demanded asylum in
Libya, fearing they will be hunted down by the military when they release their captives,
officials were quoted as saying Friday.
Ghalib "Commander
Robot" Andang and Mujib Susukan want to board a Libyan flight out of the Philippines,
the Philippine Star said quoting sources close to the official negotiating panel.
The development came as sources
close to the negotiations said that the Muslim extremists freed three Malaysian hostages.
The only Libyan plane in the
Philippines is the specially chartered aircraft ready to fly out some Western hostages
when they are released.
Andang and Susukan "feared
that government forces would hunt them down like dogs soon after the release of the
hostages," from the jungle hideout on the southern island of Jolo, the report said.
But chief government negotiator
Roberto Aventajado denied the issue of asylum had entered negotiations aimed at ending the
four-month crisis.
A number of kinks needed to be
ironed out before the hostages can be released, Aventajado said, but on the question of
asylum for Abu Sayyaf leaders "there is no such thing," he added.
Negotiator Farouk Hussein
expected Andang and Susukan to flee the southern Philippines, but not for Libya.
"I have talked to them so
many times and this has never been mentioned," Hussein told AFP.
"No country would want to
take them. The Abu Sayyaf has been labelled as terrorists and who would like to be
labelled as harbouring a terrorist group," he said.
"They could probably leave
Mindanao to other areas, but not asylum to Libya."
The region of Mindanao, where
Muslim extremists are fighting for a separate state, covers the southern third of the
Philippines, including Jolo.
Libya, long an international
pariah, emerged this month as the key go-between in the latest negotiations with the Abu
Sayyaf, with a reported 25 million dollar offer of aid in exchange for the captives.
A Libyan official said the
negotiations were being conducted not by the Libyan government but by the Kadhafi
Charitable Foundation, set up two years ago to help Muslims around the world and run by
the son of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.
Among the emissaries waiting to
fly to Jolo for final talks with the Abu Sayyaf is special Libyan envoy and foundation
official Mohamed Ismail.
As indications have grown
through the week that the release of the captives was imminent, at least 500 villagers
near the Abu Sayyaf hideouts have evacuated the area out of fear of being caught in the
crossfire in case the army moves in against the Abu Sayyaf, police said.
Despite negotiators demanding
all hostages be released at the same time, the Abu Sayyaf want them freed in batches in
case of a military attack.
Most of the captives were to
have been freed from the Abu Sayyaf's jungle hideout on Jolo island on Wednesday but said
troop movements in the area spooked the kidnappers.
Plans to bring out the hostages
on Thursday were aborted when rain and low cloud prevented negotiators flying from
Zamboanga to Jolo to complete negotiations.
A further stumbling block to
the release was the status of three French journalists captured last month while covering
the crisis.
The Abu Sayyaf has insisted
they not be part of the negotiations as they were captured by a separate guerrilla
faction, but Philippine President Joseph Estrada has demanded all hostages be released.
The hostages comprise three
Malaysians, two Finns, two Germans, five French nationals, two South Africans, a
Franco-Lebanese woman and 16 Filipinos.
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