A Malaysian plantation manager held hostage by Philippine Muslim extremists said he escaped before dawn under the cover of a tropical downpour after almost nine months in abysmal conditions, reports said yesterday.
Tung Wei Jie, 26, who was seized in the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo Island in November last year together with his cousin, was found in the southern Philippine island of Jolo last week and returned to Malaysia on Saturday.
Tung told local media in his uncle’s home in Port Dickson on the Straits of Malacca that he escaped in heavy rain from a bamboo hut in the jungle when his abductors, about 20 gunmen, went for pre-dawn prayers.
Photo: EPA
He and his cousin, Wei Fei, 34, who suffered from hypertension, had been taken away in April with the abductors, who demanded ransom from the family, claiming they would bring him to a hospital.
Tung said he did not know what happened to his cousin. Philippine police said on Tuesday that he died from illness.
“The hut was in the middle of nowhere. It was infested with mosquitoes. We each had one of our legs chained to the wooden pillars,” Tung was quoted by the Star as saying.
“After my cousin was taken away, I began using a fork to cut through a link in the iron chain. I succeeded after almost a month... I waited another month. And then I got the chance to escape,” he said.
Tung said he prayed for rain to escape unnoticed, adding that he ran “through dense jungle for hours and hours,” taking only short breaks until reaching a village.
Exhausted and dehydrated, he collapsed until the next day, when a villager alerted the police.
Tung said he, his cousin and two other workers were at their palm oil plantation in Sabah’s Lahad Datu District in November last year when about half a dozen men — some armed with machine guns — appeared and ordered them to walk to the beach. While the two workers were freed, the cousins were ordered aboard a speedboat.
They later boarded another boat to a small island, where they stayed five days, before being taken to Jolo, a known stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf militant group.
While in captivity, they were only fed plain rice and some fried fish and not allowed to bathe for three months. There was no running water or electricity, Tung added.
“They were planning to shoot us or just dump us at sea” after securing ransom, he said, adding that they overheard their captors’ discussion.
“It was very traumatizing,” the New Straits Times quoted him as saying.
Tung’s uncle said he only spoke briefly to his son, Tung’s cousin, in January and Tung on April 18.
Agence France-Presse could not reach Tung or his family.
Philippine police have blamed the kidnapping on the Abu Sayyaf group, responsible for multiple bombings and mass kidnappings of foreigners.
In 2000, the group seized 21 mostly Western holidaymakers from a resort at Sipadan in Sabah State. The hostages were later freed.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was