/ 17 August 2000

HOSTAGE RELEASE DELAYED BY WEATHER

THE release of a dozen foreign hostages – including South Africans Callie and Monique Strydom – held for up to nearly four months by Moslem rebels in the southern Philippines has been postponed at least until Friday, officials said. A spokesman for chief hostage negotiator Robert Aventajado said bad weather over Jolo, the southern island where the guerrillas are holed up and where the hostages are being kept captive, had prevented the rescue team from flying in. But other sources said problems over how many hostages would be released had proved intractable and negotiators were trying to resolve the issue. A Filipina hostage, Lucrecia Dablo, was released on Wednesday. Other than Dablo, six Malaysians and a German woman have been released.