Talks to Resume Tuesday for Release of Foreign JournalistsPhilippine government's chief hostage negotiator Robert Aventajado said Sunday that negotiations will resume Tuesday for the release of two French journalists still held by the Abu Sayyaf on the southern island of Jolo.It is not safe right now to negotiate as tension still runs high among the Abu Sayyaf ranks, Aventajado told reports Sunday afternoon upon his arrival in the central city of Cebu, The ABS-CBN TV station reported. Fighting broke out Saturday morning in Jolo between two factions of the Abu Sayyaf before it released four remaining Europeans of 21 hostages kidnapped from Malaysia's resort island of Sipadan in April. "The situation is not stable in the area. If we begin operations, the lives of the two French journalists would be placed in danger," said Aventajado, who flew to Cebu to report to French ambassador Gilles Chouraqui concerning the delay in the release of the French nationals. He also said Abu Sayyaf leader Ghalib Ndang needs to recover his confidence in the security of his men and the two French men after the incident. The chief negotiator said the French journalists, abducted in Jolo in July while covering the hostage crisis, would have been freed Saturday together with the four Sipadan hostages but for the factional fighting. The feuding occurred between one faction led by Andang, better known as Commander Robot, and Mujib Susukan and another faction led by Abu Sabar and a certain commander Randy over whether to release four or all the six European hostages. The faction of Abu Sabar allegedly ambushed Andang and his men on suspicion that the latter had cheated them out of their fair share of the ransom the Abu Sayyaf was supposed to have received. A team of government emissaries going to Jolo for the handover of the hostages was caught in the ambush which killed one bodyguard of the negotiating team and wounded five others. Aventajado said Andang has assured him that the two French journalists are under his custody, not with the faction of Abu Sabar as reported earlier. Meanwhile, a Libyan chartered airplane will fly in Cebu Sunday afternoon to take the released Europeans to Libya. It has been widely reported that Libya had agreed to pay one million U.S. dollars each for the six foreign hostages in addition to an earlier offer of 25 million dollars in ransom to the Abu Sayaf for the release of hostages. But both Tripoli and Manila have denied that they paid any ransoms. Libya said its funds were for livelihood projects for the Muslim areas in Mindanao in the southern Philippines. |
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