Sayyaf frees Chinese fish farm manager

From the Mindanao Examiner BlogSpot site (Jul 10): Sayyaf frees Chinese fish farm manager

Suspected Abu Sayyaf militants have freed a Chinese fish farm manager they kidnapped in Sabah, Malaysia after two months in captivity, reports said Thursday.

It said Malaysia’s Police Inspector-General Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar has confirmed the release of Yang Zai Lin, who was snatched by gunmen on May 6, and brought to the southern Philippines where he had been kept.

Malaysia’s The Star Online also reported that Yang has been brought back to Sandakan and will be taken to Kuala Lumpur before being sent back to China. The 34-year old Yang is the manager of the Wonderful Terrace Fish Farm at Pulau Baik in Lahad Datu town.

It was unknown if ransom had been paid by Malaysia o Yang’s family and Filipino authorities have not release any information about Yang’s freedom or if it police and military officials were aware that he had been freed.

Reports said Yang is a native of Guangzhou, but the Chinese Consulate in Kuching in Malaysia claimed Yang is from Guizhou province in southwest China. The latest abduction has forced Sabah authorities to declare curfew and travel restrictions in several areas there.

At least 6 people, including three foreigners, had been kidnapped in Sabah in daring cross-border raids by the Abu Sayyaf in recent months.

The abduction of Yang came at a time Filipino authorities were also searching for two German yachters who disappeared at sea off Palawan province. Stefan Viktor Okonek, 71, and his companion, Herike Diesen, 55, have been reported missing after fishermen spotted their empty yacht.

Philippine authorities said the German adventurers were heading to Sabah after from a holiday in Palawan when they disappeared on April 25. There were reports that they had been taken captive by the Abu Sayyaf, however no Philippine officials would confirm this.

Also in May, Abu Sayyaf militants in Sulu province released a kidnapped 29-year old Chinese holidaymaker Gao Huayun and a Filipina resort worker, Marcy Dayawan, 40. The kidnappers have originally demanded RM36.4 million ransom or equivalent to almost P500 million for the safe release of the Chinese woman.

Sources in Sulu said that a leader of the Moro National Liberation Front, Nameh Sangkula, helped negotiate the release of the hostages in the village of Bawisan in Parang town on May 30. It was unknown who tapped Sangkula to secure the freedom of the hostages.The victims were fetched by security forces and handed over to Malaysian officials who were in Jolo town. The freed victims were then whisked to a waiting speedboat that brought them to Sabah.

The two women were snatched from Singamata Adventures and Reef Resort in the town of Semporna in Sabah on April 2. The victims were first brought by their captors led by Murphy Ladja to the Filipino province of Tawi-Tawi before escaping by boat to Sulu and handed the hostages to another Abu Sayyaf group under Alhabsi Misaya in Mount Taran in Sulu’s Indanan town.

The Abu Sayyaf was largely blamed for the daring raid on the posh Pulau Sipadan resort in 2000 where they kidnapped 21 people and ransomed them off to Malaysia and Libya for at least $25 million.

In November last year, the Abu Sayyaf kidnapped a Taiwanese tourist Chang An Wei, 58, after killing her husband Hsu Li Min, 57, in a daring cross-border raid in Sabah’s Pom Pom Island. The woman was eventually released a month later near the village of Liban in Talipao town in Sulu after paying ransom.

The Abu Sayyaf resorted to ransom kidnappings to raise money for the purchase weapons and fund terror attacks in the Philippines. It is still holding at least 10 people, mostly foreigners.

http://www.mindanaoexaminer.net/2014/07/sayyaf-frees-chinese-fish-farm-manager.html