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Thursday, June 16, 2005
Indonesian lawmakers to fly home 2 freed sailors
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Several Indonesian lawmakers arrived in the city Wednesday to fetch two of their nationals who were rescued by Philippine authorities from their Abu Sayyaf captors over the weekend.
The two Indonesian sailors, Yamin Labaso, 26, and Erikson Hutagaol, 23, will be returning home to a huge welcome in Jakarta where their families will be waiting for them, said Indonesian lawmaker Unus Effendi Habibie.
Local officials turned over Labaso and Hutagaol to the Indonesian delegation on Wednesday. They were freed recently after being kept captive in the southern island of Jolo for more than two months.
Habibie led a small delegation of lawmakers to Zamboanga City to thank Filipino security officials for the safe recovery of the sailors.
One more Indonesian--Ahmad Resmiyadi, 32-year-old skipper of tugboat Bongagaya 91--is still being kept captive by the Abu Sayyaf in Jolo's jungle. Philippine security forces have been sent to the area to rescue him.
The trio were kidnapped near Mataking island off Malaysia's eastern Sabah state last March 30, and brought to Sulu.
"We are so grateful to the Filipino military, to Lt. Gen. Alberto Braganza, the commander of the Southern Command, and to President (Gloria) Arroyo for the rescue of the two Indonesian hostages," Habibie said.
Habibie met with the freed sailors, clad in hospital clothes, inside the Southern Command headquarters in Zamboanga City. Habibie and Braganza held a brief news conference in the hospital.
He said the duo would return to Indonesia with him and that their families are eagerly waiting for them. "They are all so excited and our people are so happy for their safe release," he said.
Habibie last month flew to Zamboanga City from Jakarta and appealed to the Abu Sayyaf to free all the hostages. "Now, I return here to get...fetch them, and we will never forget this day," he said.
Braganza said security forces were searching for the remaining hostage in Jolo, about 950 kilometers south of Manila.
Some security sources in Jolo said the duo were freed after unnamed negotiators allegedly paid a still unspecified amount of ransom money to the Abu Sayyaf kidnappers headed by Albader Parad. Negotiations for the safe release of Resmiyadi, who is being held by another Abu Sayyaf faction under Salip Abdulla, are going on.
Still other sources said a local Muslim villager, Nijal Aradain, helped the pair escape in Mt. Tumantangis near Indanan town. It was not immediately known why Aradain helped the Indonesians escaped or what role he played in the safe release of Labaso and Hutagaol.
Labaso and Hutagaol told a news conference through an interpreter that they were freed by the kidnappers before dawn on Sunday. "They said they were freed around 1 a.m. and handed to military men and flown out by helicopter," Habibie said.
The military said the two hostages were rescued after a firefight with the kidnappers shortly before 3 a.m. "They were rescued by soldiers after a firefight with gunmen. We have a strict no-ransom policy," Braganza said.
Braganza said the freed hostages told the soldiers who did the debriefing that the remaining captive was in good health when they were separated from him. Labaso and Hutagaol are still in the military-run hospital inside the Southern Command in Zamboanga City.
The kidnappers, who called their group Jammi Al-Islamiah, earlier demanded three million ringgits ($789,600 dollars) in exchange for the safe release of the three hostages. The kidnap group said it will kill one of the hostages if ransom is not paid. The demand was sent last month to the Indonesian Consulate in Sabah.
Philippines authorities have identified the kidnappers as Ibni Hassan, Ben Sanu alias Bin Ladin, Calvi Tandanan, Fernando Corrolo, Majit Kalinggalan, Hulti Jailani, Badong Moktadil and Abdul Ullong.
Jakarta earlier rejected demands for ransom and Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said his government would not pay ransom to the kidnappers.
"They want money. But the government will never give them," Kalla said, adding that Jakarta sent a team to the Philippines to coordinate with local authorities in seeking the release of the hostages.
The hostages were crewmembers of the tugboat Bongagaya 91, owned by the Malaysian boat firm Syarikat Pengangkutan Bonggaya. The vessel was returning to Sabah from East Kalimantan when the bandits attacked them.
The release of the hostages came a few days before the scheduled visit to the Philippines of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is expected to arrive Monday. He lauded Manila for the rescue of the two sailors.
Yudhoyono on Monday thanked Arroyo for the rescue of two hostages. His spokesman, Dino Pati Jalal, said the Indonesian leader was very impressed with the rescue of Labaso and Hutagaol after more than two months in captivity.
Indonesian Ambassador to the Philippines Sanusi flew to Zamboanga City last Monday and met with Braganza to thank the military for the safe recovery of the hostages.
The Abu Sayyaf was implicated in the kidnapping of two Malaysian and an Indonesian tugboat crew members in April last year near the southern Philippine island of Taganak off Tawi-Tawi. Seamen Toh Chiu Tiong, 53, and Wong Siu Ung, 52, and Indonesian skipper JE Walter Sampel died in captivity, Filipino authorities said.
The Abu Sayyaf was also behind the kidnapping of 21 mostly Asian and European holidaymakers from the Malaysian island resort of Sipadan in April 2000. Many of the hostages later were freed after Libyan and Malaysian negotiators paid an estimated US$11 million ransom.
It was listed as a foreign terrorist organization by Washington after Manila implicated five of the group's known leaders in the killing of Californian Guillermo Sobero in 2001 and Kansas missionary Martin Burnham in 2002. (AJ of Sun.Star Zamboanga/Sunnex)
(June 16, 2005 issue)
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