/ 8 May 2000

TV crew film stricken Philippine hostages

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Jolo | Monday 11.20am.

A PHILIPPINE television crew on Sunday caught images of 21 mostly foreign hostages huddled in a forest clearing, looking helpless and stricken with grief.

The hostages — two South Africans, nine Malaysians, three Germans, two French, two Finns, two Filipinos and a Lebanese — have been in Jolo since the rebels abducted them from a Malaysian diving resort two weeks ago.

Some of the images were filmed as government troops fired mortars at the defence lines of the Islamic rebels who have been holding them for the past two weeks.

Some hostages were seen biting their lips while others stared into the camera, a pleading look in their eyes. All appeared gaunt and exhausted. Sounds of others sobbing could be heard in the background. The images were shot by a television crew of the ABS-CBN station during a trip shrouded in secrecy to a stronghold of the fundamentalist Abu Sayyaf guerrillas on Jolo island. It was shown to reporters in Jolo during a satellite feed to the ABS-CBN offices in Manila. Some of the images were shot as rounds of mortar slammed into the guerrillas’ defence lines between 500 metres and one kilometre from where the hostages were kept, the crew told reporters.

The government said on Sunday that it does not want to endanger the hostages but it would consider a rescue raid if the crisis dragged on. The video footage showed captives sitting together in a jungle clearing, holding bottles of mineral water or clutching sleeping mats. All appeared to be carrying wooden canes fashioned out of tree branches to aid them in their trek through the jungles. All wore shabby clothes.

They looked as if they had come from a long journey and a rest in the clearing seemed a blessing. – Reuters