Twists, turns in bid to free Rodwell

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer (Mar 31): Twists, turns in bid to free Rodwell

The ransom had changed hands and a day had passed, but Australian Warren Rodwell remained in the Abu Sayyaf’s hands. Basilan Vice Gov. Al Rasheed Sakalahul felt he had been duped and he wanted to unleash hell on the kidnappers.

But that would endanger Rodwell’s life so he reined in his anger and demanded an explanation from the Abu Sayyaf commander he had been dealing with to free the kidnapped Australian.

Sakalahul got it and was relieved when his patience paid off.

But the vice governor also learned how wrong he and the authorities had been about where the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf bandits had kept the Australian.

The Abu Sayyaf freed Rodwell, 54, early on Saturday last week after his family paid

P4 million to the kidnappers known for beheading captives who refused to pay ransom.

Throughout Rodwell’s 15-month captivity, all of them believed the former Australian soldier was being held in Basilan, the Abu Sayyaf stronghold, or Jolo where the bandits also operated.

As it turned out, Rodwell was held not by the Abu Sayyaf but its accomplices, most likely rogue Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas, in Zamboanga Sibugay, the mountainous southern half of the Zamboanga Peninsula across the strait from Basilan.

That distance and bad weather delayed Rodwell’s release and had Sakalahul given way to his anger, the Australian would have been killed there, as the kidnappers had threatened to do unless ransom was paid before Easter.

Now the authorities, too, know they should look beyond Basilan and Jolo and sniff around some other groups’ backyards in looking for the other captives of the Abu Sayyaf.

Listed as terrorists by the United Nations and the United States, as well as by the Philippines, the Abu Sayyaf is holding two Europeans, a Jordanian journalist, a Malaysian and a Japanese treasure hunter, and is demanding ransom for their release.

Sakalahul had played a key role in successful talks for the release of other Abu Sayyaf kidnap victims, and a threat to Rodwell’s life had made the authorities turn to him again for help.

At first, Sakalahul did not want to have anything to do with Rodwell because he was Australian and he still smarted whenever he remembered how the Australians treated him when he traveled to their country in 2005.

 

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/70715/twists-turns-in-bid-to-free-rodwell