| Former
Hostages Visit Libya By BASSEM MROUE,
Associated Press Writer
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) - With
their long ordeal in the Philippines behind them, six former hostages arrived in Tripoli
on Tuesday and attended a ceremony where official after official lavishly praised Libyan
leader Moammar Gadhafi's role in securing their freedom.
``Don't forget the name that
delivered you from the humiliation of captivity, that name is Moammar Gadhafi,'' a Libyan
official told the former hostages, some of whom were wearing T-shirts adorned with
pictures of Gadhafi.
The welcome ceremony for the
French, South African and German ex-hostages was held at the site where Gadhafi's adopted
daughter was killed in the 1986 U.S. bombing of Tripoli and the port city of Benghazi.
Gadhafi often receives foreign
visitors at the site, a ruined house, taking the opportunity to criticize the United
States for the bombing that killed at least three dozen people. But he did not attend
Tuesday's ceremony, leaving the former hostages to endure speech after speech by Libyan
officials and foreign dignitaries.
Many of the speeches lauded
Gadhafi and his son Seif el-Islam, the head of the Gadhafi International Association for
Charitable Organizations, for winning the hostages' freedom from Muslim rebel captors. But
anti-American rhetoric was also much in evidence.
The site was decorated with
anti-American and anti-British posters - some of the U.S. warplanes which participated in
the 1986 raids took off from Britain. A sculpture at the site showed a giant fist crushing
a U.S. warplane.
When Tuesday's 75-minute
ceremony ended, a Libyan announcer invited the former hostages to tour the site, which he
said was destroyed ``by the leader of international terrorism: America.''
The hostages, who were freed
Sunday and Monday, had been held on Jolo island in the southern Philippines by members of
the Abu Sayyaf rebel group. Some had been in captivity since April. Libya took the lead in
negotiations to win their freedom.
Instead of heading home to
relatives and friends, or to medical examinations or psychological counseling after their
ordeal, the hostages were put on a plane for a more than 20-hour flight to Libya for the
celebratory ceremony. The trip included an overnight layover on mattresses in an airport
at the United Arab Emirates.
Two former hostages - South
African Callie Strydom and German Werner Wallert - attended the ceremony wearing white
T-shirts with a picture of the Libyan leader on the back.
``On the one hand we are
released and happy to be released ... on the other hand we are still concerned about those
who are still in captivity,'' Wallert said in a short address.
``I feel amazing. Very happy,
very happy,'' Strydom, the South African, told reporters afterward. ``We went through
unbelievable things, from military attacks to running around in the jungle.''
The freed hostages' trip to
Libya is officially voluntary. But it is widely believed that their governments agreed to
the visit in exchange for Libya's help in negotiations.
Dirk Wallert, the German
hostage's son, said he didn't mind the Libya visit in light of the fact that Libya helped
spring his father from captivity.
``Because the hostages were
freed, the stopover in Tripoli is for me totally all right,'' he said in an interview with
SAT1 television.
Gadhafi, in power for more than
three decades, earned unprecedented international thanks for persuading the Abu Sayyaf
rebels to release the six. He is working on winning the freedom of 18 others - six
foreigners and 12 Filipinos - still held by the Muslim rebels.
Negotiators in the Philippines
say Gadhafi paid $1 million per captive, but Libya denies that, insisting it gained the
releases by promising development projects in the Philippines.
Hours after the release, the
Philippine government announced that an American, Jeffrey Craig Edwards Schilling, was
kidnapped by the rebels. There had been fears that paying ransoms would encourage
guerrillas to take more hostages. Chief Libyan negotiator Rajab Azzarouq said Libya would
work for Schilling's release.
Libya, often accused of backing
guerrillas, plotting terror attacks and meddling in affairs far from home, says it acted
in the hostage situation out of humanitarian concern. But the move also won Gadhafi
international publicity at a time when his North African nation is working to end years of
isolation.
France accuses Libyan agents in
the 1989 bombing of a French passenger jet that killed 170 people. On Tuesday, though, the
French minister for cooperation, Charles Josselin, was in Libya to receive the French
citizens among the former hostages.
``This positive action by Libya
in the release of the hostages can clearly only improve relations between our two
countries,'' he told France Inter radio.
But Libya's new image of a
caring and humane nation appeared to cut no ice with some of the relatives of the 270
victims of the 1988 Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. Two Libyans suspected of
masterminding the attack are currently on trial in the Netherlands.
``I don't believe Gadhafi has
an iota of feeling for the six hostages - they're just a means to an end,'' said Bert
Ammerman of River Vale, N.J., whose brother Thomas was killed in the Pan Am bombing.
``It's typical Gadhafi and I'm
not surprised by it,'' Ammerman said by telephone from the high school where he teaches.
Libya has long-standing ties
with Muslim rebels in the mostly Catholic Philippines and has helped negotiate in previous
kidnappings. It has helped build schools and mosques in the impoverished south, but has
also been accused of training rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the larger
Muslim rebel group.
In addition to Strydom and
Wallert, the freed hostages included Frenchwomen Marie Moarbes, Sonia Wendling and Maryse
Burgot; and South African Callie Strydom, Monique's husband.
Burgot was among three French
journalists who came to the rebel camp to interview the hostages last month, while the
other freed hostages were among 21 people kidnapped from the Malaysian resort of Sipadan
April 23.
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