| Philippines
emissary's visit boosts hostages' freedom bid JOLO, Philippines, Aug 27 (AFP) -
A government emissary visited the jungle hideout of Muslim extremist kidnappers in this
southern Philippines island on Sunday, raising the hopes of 12 western hostages most of
whom are in their fifth month of captivity.
The go-between codenamed
"Dragon" took an early morning air force helicopter flight to Jolo from nearby
Zamboanga city.
Witnesses said he later drove
toward the village of Bandang for a rendezvous with Abu Sayyaf leaders.
Sources close to the talks said
the emissary would push for the immediate release of two Frenchwomen, a Franco-Lebanese
woman and a South African woman along with a German man and a Finn under a deal backed by
a charity run by a son of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.
Government troops set up
checkpoints and conducted patrols on the road linking the provincial capital to the
village of Tagbak, about 10 kilometers (0.6 miles) from the Abu Sayyaf mountain camp, an
AFP reporter witnessed.
The governments of the western
captives are scheduled to send Manila-based envoys to Zamboanga later Sunday amid mounting
expectations that the emissary's visit could produce a breakthrough, sources close to the
talks said.
The gunmen, self-styled Muslim
independence fighters, hold three other Frenchmen, a German, a Finn, the South African
woman's husband, and more than a dozen Filipino hostages.
Ten of the captives including
nine of the westerners were snatched from a nearby Malaysian resort in a cross-border raid
on Easter Sunday and are now on their 127th day in captivity.
The Abu Sayyaf has freed more
than a dozen hostages including 11 foreigners in exchange for ransoms the Philippine
military estimated at 5.5 million dollars.
Kadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam,
told the German news magazine Focus in its latest edition that the hostages "will be
released in small groups in the next few days," starting with the women.
Seif al-Islam runs the Kadhafi
Charitable Foundation, which has offered millions of dollars' worth of development aid to
poor Muslim areas of the mainly Roman Catholic Philippines including Jolo in exchange for
the western captives.
A Libyan jet has been on
standby in the Philippines for two weeks, ready to fly the western hostages to Tripoli
where they would be turned over to their respective governments.
The latest push to resolve the
hostage crisis was launched after the police freed on bail two suspected Abu Sayyaf bagmen
who were caught trying to change 240,000 dollars in alleged ransom money into the local
currency in Zamboanga last week.
Their lawyer has denied that
the money was returned to the suspects, saying it was kept in police custody as evidence
in the trial.
Press reports have said the Abu
Sayyaf has threatened to behead some western hostages if the two suspects are not freed
with the money. Government negotiators have discounted the report.
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