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IN THE NEWS
AUG 25, 2000

FIVE FOUND MURDERED AFTER REBELS ABDUCT TRUCKERS

PARENTS OF PINAY IN CRASH OFF TO BAHRAIN

R.P. IN BIND AFTER KIDNAPPER'S BAGMEN CAUGHT RED-HANDED

EXTREMISTS KILL POLICE INFORMER'S DAUGHTER

LAKAS DENIES EAVESDROPPING ON ERAP

SHABU WORTH P730-M SEIZED

FIRST LADY OPENS FILIPINO FILM FESTIVAL IN NEW YORK

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IN THE NEWS

R.P. IN BIND AFTER KIDNAPPER'S
BAGMEN CAUGHT RED-HANDED

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Aug. 25 (Sunstar) -- Authorities are in an
embarrassing bind Friday after police arrested two alleged Abu
Sayyaf hostage takers with a pile of cash believed to be ransom money. 

The two suspects were thrown into jail Aug. 24 after being
caught red-handed trying to exchange $240,000 in notes into the local currency at a bank here. 

An Abu Sayyaf guerrilla was also arrested in nearby Basilan when he was wounded in a clash with government forces. 
A government negotiator has warned that the police action could hinder efforts to win the release of the hostages, many of them now into their fifth month of captivity in the southern island of Jolo. 

Press reports said Zamboanga police were under pressure to
release the suspects and return the money to the Abu Sayyaf, now holding 12 western and 17 local hostages. 

"You can't blame the government for taking the action,"
negotiator Farouk Hussein said, referring to the arrests. 
But if the money is the Abu Sayyaf's, "this will complicate
matters and would probably affect the negotiations." 

The gunmen hold a French couple, a Franco-Lebanese woman, two Germans, two Finns, a South African couple and a Filipino who were among a bigger group of tourists and resort staff abducted from a nearby Malaysian resort on April 23. 

They also hold three French journalists, 12 Filipino Christian
preachers and a number of Jolo residents. 

Nine Malaysians, a German and a Filipino from the Malaysian
kidnapping as well as a German journalist have been freed. The
military estimates the Abu Sayyaf raised $5.5 million in ransoms. 
Manila and the other governments involved had all denied paying
ransoms. 

The action on the Abu Sayyaf suspects came a day after President Joseph Estrada received a joint letter of concern over the hostages from French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Finnish President Tarja Halonen.  

They told Estrada, "the safe and early release of the hostages
is the first priority," and that their safety must not be
"undermined by any use of force" or statement which the kidnappers could use as a pretext to scuttle talks. 

Press Secretary Ricardo Puno Jr. has downplayed police
suspicions that the detained suspects had been trying to launder ransom proceeds. 

The authorities "are investigating, they are looking into the
background. Let's not jump to conclusions at this point." 
Hussein said: "I hope this will not topple the talks. I hope
this will not affect the negotiations. I hope this money did not
come from them (Abu Sayyaf)." 

The negotiator, who visited the Abu Sayyaf jungle hideout on
Aug. 23, said he has secured a pledge by kidnap leaders to free all their remaining 12 western captives, "but in several batches."

He  gave no timetable. A Libyan-brokered deal designed to extricate the western captives and fly them to Tripoli in exchange for development aid to the Muslim regions of the country collapsed at the last minute Aug. 19. In Tripoli, a foreign ministry official said Thursday that the government remained optimistic the initiative would succeed. 

"After the release of images of our children and the other
hostages, we are struck by their worsened and alarming physical condition and by their moral distress after so many trying experiences," said the parents of French hostages Stephane Loisy and his girlfriend Sonia Wendling. 

The parents issued a statement in Strasbourg to appeal to "the
people involved in their liberation to do everything possible to
enable them to recover their freedom without delay." (SNS)

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