June 2, 2000, AFP, 5:23, PM, Filipino Muslim rebels demand one million dollars per hostage,
June 2, 2000, AFP, 7:34 PM, Philippines hostages weep on seeing "permanent" home taking shape,
June 2, 2000, Reuters Wire, 7:10 ET, Update 2-New hut drives Philippine hostages to despair,
February 23, 2010, Khaleej Times (UAE) Independence or Autonomy?, by Iman Kurdi
________________________________________________________
June 2, 2000, AFP, 4:53, German, French hostages need immediate medical help: doctor,
MANILA, June 2 (AFP) -16:53 - At least two of the 21 mostly foreign hostages being held in the jungles of southern Philippines by Muslim rebels need to be hospitalised immediately, a Philippine doctor said on Friday after leading a mission to check on the health of the captives.
Provincial health officer Nelsa Amin told reporters German schoolteacher Renate Wallert was in a critical condition, and was confined to a hammock in the rebel camp.
Wallert, she said, had complained of blood in stools and other digestive troubles while French hostage Stephane Loisy was experiencing psychological problems.
Amin said she had asked government negotiators to begin discussions with the leaders of the Abu Sayyaf Muslim rebel group, which is holding the hostages on the southern island of Jolo, to allow their immediate
hospitalisation.
There have been major concerns raised over the condition of Wallert, who has been suffering from hypertension and backache since the abduction of the hostages from a Malaysian resort on April 23.
Frenchman Loisy, Amin said, was an "unbalanced personality" and "he looked at you fiercely and refused to talk to anybody."
She said there was no psychologist on Jolo island.
Of the others, a Malaysian hostage, Zulkamain Hashim, who had gastroenteritis, was bitten by a scorpion late on Thursday and had a high fever, while two other Malaysians were afflicted with asthma, Amin said.
South African hostage Monique Strydom, who was said to be pregnant, reported to Amin that the uterine bleeding she experienced on May 2 had stopped. The doctor did not have a pregnancy-testing kit.
Filipino hostage Laurencia Dablo was suffering from "body malaise," the doctor said.
The Abu Sayyaf rebels are holding the three Germans, a French couple, a Finnish couple, two South Africans, nine Malaysians, two Filipinos and a Lebanese.
The hostages were abducted from the Malaysian resort of Sipadan and taken across the sea border to Jolo by boat.
Amin said she dispensed medicine to all the hostages with medical problems and made them sign for it.
Armed with two boxes of medicine, Amin had gone to the rebel camp in an ambulance trailed by a convoy of journalists' vehicles.
Journalists had been visiting the camp nearly every other day for the past three weeks, according to the hostages, who said they were fed up talking to them.
"We don't want to be impolite but we are sick of it," Wallert's husband Werner Wallert was quoted saying.
Finnish hostage Johan Franti Seppo said there were more Abu Sayyaf rebels around their camp in recent days amid reports that guerillas from the neighbouring island of Basilan had crossed over to beef-up the group's strength.
"They (the new arrivals) look at us like animals in a cage," he said.
Eyewitnesses said they saw several men from the provincial governor's office putting up a hut for the hostages, apparently to keep them away from strong rains experienced in recent days.
The hostages are presently staying in a tent made of canvas and sack with bamboo floor but no walls.
--AFP
____________________________________________________________________________
June 2, 2000, AFP, 4:53, German, French hostages need immediate medical help: doctor,
MANILA, June 2 (AFP) -16:53 - At least two of the 21 mostly foreign hostages being held in the jungles of southern Philippines by Muslim rebels need to be hospitalised immediately, a Philippine doctor said on Friday after leading a mission to check on the health of the captives.
Provincial health officer Nelsa Amin told reporters German schoolteacher Renate Wallert was in a critical condition, and was confined to a hammock in the rebel camp.
Wallert, she said, had complained of blood in stools and other digestive troubles while French hostage Stephane Loisy was experiencing psychological problems.
Amin said she had asked government negotiators to begin discussions with the leaders of the Abu Sayyaf Muslim rebel group, which is holding the hostages on the southern island of Jolo, to allow their immediate
hospitalisation.
There have been major concerns raised over the condition of Wallert, who has been suffering from hypertension and backache since the abduction of the hostages from a Malaysian resort on April 23.
Frenchman Loisy, Amin said, was an "unbalanced personality" and "he looked at you fiercely and refused to talk to anybody."
She said there was no psychologist on Jolo island.
Of the others, a Malaysian hostage, Zulkamain Hashim, who had gastroenteritis, was bitten by a scorpion late on Thursday and had a high fever, while two other Malaysians were afflicted with asthma, Amin said.
South African hostage Monique Strydom, who was said to be pregnant, reported to Amin that the uterine bleeding she experienced on May 2 had stopped. The doctor did not have a pregnancy-testing kit.
Filipino hostage Laurencia Dablo was suffering from "body malaise," the doctor said.
The Abu Sayyaf rebels are holding the three Germans, a French couple, a Finnish couple, two South Africans, nine Malaysians, two Filipinos and a Lebanese.
The hostages were abducted from the Malaysian resort of Sipadan and taken across the sea border to Jolo by boat.
Amin said she dispensed medicine to all the hostages with medical problems and made them sign for it.
Armed with two boxes of medicine, Amin had gone to the rebel camp in an ambulance trailed by a convoy of journalists' vehicles.
Journalists had been visiting the camp nearly every other day for the past three weeks, according to the hostages, who said they were fed up talking to them.
"We don't want to be impolite but we are sick of it," Wallert's husband Werner Wallert was quoted saying.
Finnish hostage Johan Franti Seppo said there were more Abu Sayyaf rebels around their camp in recent days amid reports that guerillas from the neighbouring island of Basilan had crossed over to beef-up the group's strength.
"They (the new arrivals) look at us like animals in a cage," he said.
Eyewitnesses said they saw several men from the provincial governor's office putting up a hut for the hostages, apparently to keep them away from strong rains experienced in recent days.
The hostages are presently staying in a tent made of canvas and sack with bamboo floor but no walls.
--AFP
____________________________________________________________________________
June 2, 2000, AFP, 5:23, PM, Filipino Muslim rebels demand one million dollars per hostage,
JOLO, Philippines, June 2 (AFP) - 17:23 - Muslim rebels holding 21 mostly foreign captives on the southern Philippine island of Jolo have demanded one million dollars in ransom for each captive, a government emissary said Friday.
"The Abu Sayyaf finally demanded ransom in exchange for the release of the hostages," said the emissary, who spoke on condition of anonymity, in the southern city of Zamboanga.
He is among several persons acting as intermediaries between government negotiators and leaders of the Abu Sayyaf Muslim extremist group since the abduction of the hostages from a Malaysian island resort on April 23.
"The rebel leaders told me 'let's get this problem over with and pay us 40 million pesos (nearly one million dollars) for each of the 21 captives,'" said the emissary, who has been involved in meetings with the Abu Sayyaf leaders.
Chief government negotiator Roberto Aventajado refused to confirm the report and said that, in any case, such a demand would be excessive.
Aventajado had said after his first formal talks with rebel leaders last Saturday that they had made three political demands, including the creation of an independent Islamic state in the southern Philippines.
While the Philippines and other governments involved in the crisis have a formal policy of rejecting ransom demands, officials have admitted they would have to contend with monetary demands if they were put on the table.
Despite the Manila government's insistence that it does not pay ransom, nearly all previous Abu Sayyaf kidnappings have ended with payments for "board and lodging."
Sources said the ransom demand is expected to be discussed by government negotiators who regrouped in Manila on Friday for consultations and to assess the progress of efforts so far to end the six-week old crisis.
"Negotiations were stalled this week because of the ransom demand. They need to discuss this," one source said.
Families of previous kidnap victims of the Abu Sayyaf have admitted paying ransom.
Abu Sayyaf are holding the three Germans, a French couple, a Finnish couple, two South Africans, nine Malaysians, two Filipinos and a Lebanese.
They were abducted April 23 from the Malaysian resort of Sipadan and taken to Jolo by boat.
At least two hostages need to be hospitalised immediately, a Philippine doctor said Friday after leading a mission to check on the health of the captives.
Provincial health officer Nelsa Amin told reporters that German schoolteacher Renate Wallert had complained of blood in her stool while French hostage Stephane Loisy was undergoing psychological problems.
Amin said she would ask government negotiators to discuss their immediate hospitalisation with Abu Sayyaf.
She described Wallert's condition as critical. Wallert has been suffering from hypertension and a backache since her abduction.
A Malaysian hostage Zulkamain Hashim, who was down with gastroenteritis, was bitten by a scorpion late Thursday and had a high fever while two other Malaysians were afflicted with asthma, Amin said.
South African hostage Monique Strydom, who was said to be pregnant, reported to Amin that the bleeding she experienced on May 2 had stopped while Filipino hostage Laurencia Dablo complained of "body malaise."
Amin said she dispensed medicine to all the hostages with medical problems.
Armed with two boxes of medicine, Amin went to the rebel camp in an ambulance trailed by a convoy of journalists' vehicles.
Journalists had been visiting the camp nearly every other day for the past three weeks, according to the hostages who said they were fed up with talking to them.
"We don't want to be impolite but we are sick of it," Wallert's husband Werner Wallert was quoted saying.
JOLO, Philippines, June 2 (AFP) - 17:23 - Muslim rebels holding 21 mostly foreign captives on the southern Philippine island of Jolo have demanded one million dollars in ransom for each captive, a government emissary said Friday.
"The Abu Sayyaf finally demanded ransom in exchange for the release of the hostages," said the emissary, who spoke on condition of anonymity, in the southern city of Zamboanga.
He is among several persons acting as intermediaries between government negotiators and leaders of the Abu Sayyaf Muslim extremist group since the abduction of the hostages from a Malaysian island resort on April 23.
"The rebel leaders told me 'let's get this problem over with and pay us 40 million pesos (nearly one million dollars) for each of the 21 captives,'" said the emissary, who has been involved in meetings with the Abu Sayyaf leaders.
Chief government negotiator Roberto Aventajado refused to confirm the report and said that, in any case, such a demand would be excessive.
Aventajado had said after his first formal talks with rebel leaders last Saturday that they had made three political demands, including the creation of an independent Islamic state in the southern Philippines.
While the Philippines and other governments involved in the crisis have a formal policy of rejecting ransom demands, officials have admitted they would have to contend with monetary demands if they were put on the table.
Despite the Manila government's insistence that it does not pay ransom, nearly all previous Abu Sayyaf kidnappings have ended with payments for "board and lodging."
Sources said the ransom demand is expected to be discussed by government negotiators who regrouped in Manila on Friday for consultations and to assess the progress of efforts so far to end the six-week old crisis.
"Negotiations were stalled this week because of the ransom demand. They need to discuss this," one source said.
Families of previous kidnap victims of the Abu Sayyaf have admitted paying ransom.
Abu Sayyaf are holding the three Germans, a French couple, a Finnish couple, two South Africans, nine Malaysians, two Filipinos and a Lebanese.
They were abducted April 23 from the Malaysian resort of Sipadan and taken to Jolo by boat.
At least two hostages need to be hospitalised immediately, a Philippine doctor said Friday after leading a mission to check on the health of the captives.
Provincial health officer Nelsa Amin told reporters that German schoolteacher Renate Wallert had complained of blood in her stool while French hostage Stephane Loisy was undergoing psychological problems.
Amin said she would ask government negotiators to discuss their immediate hospitalisation with Abu Sayyaf.
She described Wallert's condition as critical. Wallert has been suffering from hypertension and a backache since her abduction.
A Malaysian hostage Zulkamain Hashim, who was down with gastroenteritis, was bitten by a scorpion late Thursday and had a high fever while two other Malaysians were afflicted with asthma, Amin said.
South African hostage Monique Strydom, who was said to be pregnant, reported to Amin that the bleeding she experienced on May 2 had stopped while Filipino hostage Laurencia Dablo complained of "body malaise."
Amin said she dispensed medicine to all the hostages with medical problems.
Armed with two boxes of medicine, Amin went to the rebel camp in an ambulance trailed by a convoy of journalists' vehicles.
Journalists had been visiting the camp nearly every other day for the past three weeks, according to the hostages who said they were fed up with talking to them.
"We don't want to be impolite but we are sick of it," Wallert's husband Werner Wallert was quoted saying.
___________________________________________________________________
Diigo, June 2, 2000, Reuters Wire, 7:10 ET, Update 2-New hut drives Philippine hostages to despair,
JOLO, Philippines, June 2 (Reuters) - Some of the 21 mostly foreign hostages being held by Moslem separatists in the Philippines wept and spoke of suicide on Friday as builders put up a new hut in a sign their
ordeal will drag on for some time.
Finnish hostage Risto Mirco Vahanen, accusing the government of playing games, warned the hostages might not be able to hold on for much longer after 41 days in captivity.
"We want to get out as soon as possible and I hope the means is not through suicide or harming oneself," he told Filipino journalists allowed into the jungle camp on remote Jolo island, 960 km (600 miles) south of
the capital, Manila.
"This is a severe warning to the government. Mentally, we are getting weak. We continuously talk to each other to calm each other down."
A team of 10 carpenters, mostly members of the Abu Sayyaf fundamentalists holding the hostages, built a large hut on Friday to give them better protection and more comfort.
Philippine government negotiators do not expect to resume formal talks with the rebels until next week and have warned that the Abu Sayyaf normally holds people for up to six months.
MALARIA AND MARIAH CAREY
Provincial governor Abdusakur Tan, a member of Manila's negotiating team, told Reuters from Jolo the talks could not resume until a minor technical issue was resolved with the rebels.
In a statement in Manila, chief government negotiator Robert Aventajado said the guerrilla leaders would not resume talks until the government stopped all foreign fishermen and large fishing boats entering waters
around Jolo and nearby islands.
Tan said the guerrillas, the smaller of two groups fighting for an Islamic state in this mainly Catholic nation, had still made no ransom demand.
But another source close to the negotiations said a guerrilla emissary had demanded 40 million pesos (US$952,380) for the release of ailing German hostage Renate Wallert.
He said officials were checking if all of the divided Abu Sayyaf leadership backed this decision and if the same condition would be put on the release of all the hostages.
As the hut was built, doctors checked the conditions of the captives and brought in medicine, anti-malarials, food and a recording radio-cassette player with blank tapes and music including non-stop disco hits and Mariah Carey.
"So they are building a hut now, huh," asked Lebanese hostage Marie Moarbes. "People think we're stupid because we're in a jungle -- we still have brains: this means we will have to stay here for weeks.
"The outside world is like another life. It's not real anymore. It's completely surreal. We are coping with all the insect bites and everything, but this is crazy. It's like being in a movie, it's a nightmare."
ESTRADA APPEALS FOR PEACE
The hostages -- nine Malaysians, three Germans, two French nationals, two South Africans, two Finns, two Filipinos and a Lebanese -- were snatched from a Malaysian resort on April 23.
The hostage crisis and a surge of Islamic militancy on the main southern island of Mindanao, where government forces are battling the biggest rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), have posed the biggest security challenge to President Joseph Estrada in his two years in office.
On Friday, Estrada urged the MILF to seize the government's offer of autonomy to end the fighting in the southern region of Mindanao, warning the insurgency was not just crippling Mindanao's development, but the
entire country's.
"The truth is these rebels have no reason to fight the government because the root cause of their insurgency, the poverty in Mindanao, is the over-riding concern of this administration," Estrada told DZRH radio.
"Peace is crucial, because my government aims to hasten Mindanao's development by transforming it into the country's food basket. Our people are getting impatient. They want results and they want them fast."
On Thursday, government negotiators said the MILF had warmed to an offer of autonomy made during peace talks this week. --Reuters
____________________________________________________________________
Diigo, June 2, 2000, AFP, 7:34 PM, Philippines hostages weep on seeing "permanent" home taking shape,
JOLO, Philippines, June 2 (AFP) - 19:34 - Sadness enveloped the faces of the 21 hostages held by Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines on Friday when they saw workers putting up a "permanent" hut for them, witnesses said.
Citing strong rains, the Abu Sayyaf Muslim extremist captors asked the provincial governor to put up a more secure home for the hostages who have been moving from one rebel hideout to another in Jolo island since their abduction on April 23.
The hostages from seven nations are staying in a tent made of canvas and sack with bamboo floor but no walls in the coastal town of Talipao.
The captives were surprised and speechless when they saw about 20 carpenters from the governor's office putting up the hut Friday using palm leaves and bamboo, witnesses said.
Local television showed the captives hugging each other and breaking into tears.
"We appreciate an improvement of this makeshift tent. On the other hand this is also a sign of longer stay," said German hostage Werner Wallert.
"It seems they are building a hut now. Of course it's a sign that we will stay here a little longer," lamented Lebanese Marie Michel Moarbes.
Finnish hostage Mirco Jahanen Rista said: "It's a very bad sign, I'm afraid we will be staying here for a long time."
The Abu Sayyaf rebels are holding the three Germans, a French couple, a Finnish couple, two South Africans, nine Malaysians, two Filipinos and a Lebanese.
Wallert, whose wife and son are among the hostages abducted from a Malaysian island, said: "We cannot understand how people can make you suffer just for some minor reasons.
"We are suffering every single day."
South African hostage Monique Strydom, who is pregnant, said: "I cannot put the baby through this, if there is a problem who's gonna help me."
Rista said "there are people having nightmares and some are even considering suicide."
Some of the hostages have health problems, with two of them needing immediate hospitalisation, a doctor said. --AFP
________________________________________________________________
Diigo, February 23, 2010, Khaleej Times (UAE) Independence or Autonomy?, by Iman Kurdi (Arab View)
China sees the Dalai Lama as a separatist campaigning for an independent Tibet. The Dalai Lama, on the other hand, argues that he is campaigning for a middle way, namely an autonomous Tibet within the People’s Republic of China.
The word “within” is important and indeed the memorandum drawn up by the Dalai Lama’s negotiating team points out the difference between autonomy within China and independence from China. It all got me thinking.
How often do we mistake a yearning for independence for a yearning for autonomy? So what exactly is the difference between autonomy and independence?
The Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines autonomy as: “The right of a group of people to govern itself or to organise its own activities.” And it defines independence as “freedom from being governed or ruled by another country” and “the ability to live your life without being helped or influenced by other people.”
On the personal level, we often use the two words interchangeably. In fact, autonomy is sometimes defined as personal independence. Independence is closely linked to freedom in my mind. It is the trigger that allows us to free ourselves from the yoke of being governed by others.
In my own life the yearning for freedom and independence has been a key motivation since early childhood. And yet today I wonder whether what I hankered for is really autonomy rather than independence.
To some extent, independence, just like freedom, is a fallacy. No individual is entirely free or entirely independent of others, with the possible exception of raving lunatics.
It’s all relative. Without being drawn into a philosophical or even a psychoanalytical debate about the subject, it is an intriguing aspect of human nature that we long both for connections with others and freedom from the ties that bind.
Autonomy comes from the Greek words auto, meaning self, and nomos, meaning law. Essentially what it means is that an individual, or a group depending on the context, has the power to make up and live by its own set of rules and regulations.
Independence, on the other hand, focuses on the idea of being a separate entity not subject to the rules and influence of others.
And so I wonder whether personal happiness requires not a sense of independence, which by definition entails a sense of separation from others, but a sense of autonomy. What we all want is the security of being part of a social group, be that the family, society, nationhood or a religious Ummah, of being intricately and unambiguously connected into the lives of others, whilst at the same time feeling that we have a say over how we live our lives, from the every day banalities of choosing what we eat to the higher-end principles of what we believe in and the moral principles that guide us.
At the group level the same principles apply. Independence focuses on sovereignty while autonomy focuses on the power to make decisions. Institutions will seldom be independent but their success largely depends on their ability to be autonomous. Take the judiciary.
We often talk of an independent judiciary, although perhaps not so much in the Arab world, but it is rarely the case. Being subject to government appointments and funding negates the idea of independence but leaves open the possibility of autonomy. And so we come to statehood.
When a group of people see themselves as a culturally or ethnically distinct group that is being governed by a well-defined “other”, this “other” often being a state or an ethnic group that has forcefully taken over the group through peaceful or violent means, they naturally feel anger and resentment. You don’t have to look far to find examples of such groups; they exist in every continent. What they have in common is grievance at being subject to the rules of others, combined with economic and social discrimination against them.
When the inhabitants of a geographic region such as Tibet, united by historical, cultural, ethnic, linguistic and religious identity find themselves living under the governance of a nation such as China to which they have some historical and geographic affiliation, but from which they also have an unmistakable sense of alienation, and when they live under the very real consequences of being disempowered in their own land, is the answer to be found in independence or in autonomy?
The Dalai Lama has chosen a path to peaceful resolution through autonomy within China rather than independence from China.
Partly this is because autonomy is a more realistic goal than independence. But it is also pragmatic.
Perhaps what applies at the personal level applies equally at the state level. It is not freedom but self-determination, not sovereignty but empowerment that are ultimately key.
We may all scream for independence but what really counts is autonomy, though that in no way erases the legitimacy of independence. What is more, it is no coincidence that the more economically and socially developed a country, the more it favours the concept of regional autonomy.
Iman Kurdi is an Arab writer based in Nice, France. For comments, write to opinion@khaleejtimes.com
________________________________________________________________________________
March 9, 2007, The Philippine Star,
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• Palace takes as constructive criticism US report on killings
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