Islamic militants holding three Red Cross aid workers have not yet released any of their hostages, despite promises of a pullback from the Philippine military, authorities said yesterday.
Manila announced a military retreat after Abu Sayyaf threatened to kill the hostages at the end of the month if the army cordon around the rebels was not lifted.
Sulu provincial Governor Abdusakur Tan, head of a government task force dealing with the crisis, said he spoke by telephone yesterday with Albader Parad, the spokesman for the kidnappers who had earlier threatened the captives with beheading.
“He said they are not budging, so they are sticking to their original demand,” Tan said.
The gunmen want all government forces to pull back to Jolo island’s provincial capital, effectively yielding the entire Sulu island group and its half a million residents to Abu Sayyaf control.
Tan told ABS-CBN television that he hoped the military pullback would at least get the kidnappers to negotiate, even if there was no immediate hostage release.
“It is not easy to reposition troops but we are doing this just so that we can get an early release of these hostages or get them [Abu Sayyaf] to sit down and talk to us,” he said.
The government’s decision to withdraw troops came after a dramatic appeal by the head of the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross, Jakob Kellenberger, for the lives of Filipina Mary Jean Lacaba, 37, Andreas Notter, 38, of Switzerland, and Italian Eugenio Vagni, 62.
The three were snatched on Jan. 15 during a humanitarian mission.
The Abu Sayyaf, linked by the military to the al-Qaeda network, has been blamed for the country’s worst terrorist attacks, including kidnappings and bombings.
In a separate interview, Parad told ABS-CBN one captive would be freed if the military showed signs of moving.
“Even if the retreat is not completed within 36 hours, as long as we can see a total pullout happening, we will turn over one of them,” he said.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
RSS