ERIK DE CASTRO, Jolo | Thursday 12.30pm.
A PHILIPPINE government negotiator said Manila will not give in to Muslim rebels holding 21 mostly foreign hostages, dashing hopes of an early release of the captives, four of whom need hospital treatment.
Sulu governor Abdusakur Tan said the government wanted to end the seven-week drama peacefully rather than sending the army into the heavily defended Abu Sayyaf guerrilla stronghold.
Asked about a rebel statement that they would never abandon their key demands, including an independent Islamic state, Tan told reporters: ”We will wait for them until they get tired and give in.”
There had been faint hopes of the hostages being released soon. Earlier this week, the rebels had indicated they were willing to shorten the period of the hostages’ captivity.
Tan sent an emissary to the rebels’ remote jungle hideout on southern Jolo island on Thursday with two days’ supply of fruit, chicken, eggs, vegetables and bread for the hostages, many of whom are depressed and ill.
But a planned mission by Filipino, German and Malaysian doctors fell through.
Tan said the medical mission might go ahead on Friday, when he and the government’s three other negotiators are due to resume formal negotiations after an almost two-week break.
The government is seeking the urgent release of four of the hostages, including a pregnant woman, who doctors say need urgent hospitalisation.
The four are German housewife Renate Wallert, South African Monique Strydom, French tourist Stephane Loisy and Malaysian Zulkarnai bin Hashim.
A medical team that visited the hostages last weekend said the pregnant Strydom needed tests, Wallert was suffering arthritic pains and complaining of bloody stools, Loisy was emotionally disturbed and Zulkarnai had suffered scorpion bites.
The hostages — nine Malaysians, three Germans, two French nationals, two South Africans, two Finns, two Filipinos and a Lebanese — were abducted from a Malaysian resort on April 23 and taken to Jolo, 960 km south of Manila. –Reuters