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Tuesday, November 23, 2004
NAYAN RELEASED
MANILA (Updated 12:00 p.m.) -- Malacanang confirmed Tuesday the release of Philippine diplomat Angelito Nayan to Afghan officials and will be on his way home in 24 hours.
Presidential Communications Director Silvestre Afable, who was interviewed over ANC News, said Nayan together with his two other UN workers, British-Irish citizen Annetta Flanigan and Shqipe Hebibi of Kosovo were released to Afghan officials.
He said Undersecretary Mike Reyes of Malacanang's Communications Office, who is in Kabul together with the team working on Nayan's release, reported Nayan's release.
Afable said information reaching Malacanang said no ransom has been paid to the abductors or exchange of Taliban prisoners with the hostages as demanded by the kidnappers earlier.
As of this posting, Nayan is reportedly being checked in an Afghan hospital, Afable said.
"We are very happy that Angelito Nayan has been released and he is well and there was no payment of ransom and no release of any prisoners in exchange. We appreciate the efforts of the United Nations and the Afghan government to effect the release as promised," Afable said.
"We would also like to thank everybody for their prayers including our Muslim leaders all over the world, people from the Foreign Affairs and Malacanang who work on the ground to coordinate this activity," Afable added.
Reports from Associated Press said the hostages were released late Monday and are well.
"They have been released. They were freed last night," one of the Afghan officials said.
Armed men seized Nayan, Flanigan and Hebibi in Kabul on Oct. 28, the first such abduction in the Afghan capital since the Taliban fell three years ago.
Afghan officials earlier said they believed a criminal gang carried out the abductions, and that negotiations centered on a ransom demand.
UN officials provided no immediate confirmation that the three had been freed.
US and Afghan forces raided two houses in downtown Kabul on Monday, smashing through walls and doors to detain 10 people and question residents on whether they had seen the three missing UN workers.
Security forces began the assault in the west of the city at about 4 a.m., using rockets to blast a hole in a wall surrounding the two-story home of a doctor working for the United Nations, witnesses said. (MVG/Sunnex/AP)
(November 23, 2004 issue)
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