Abu Sayyaf frees 2 German hostages in Philippines

From the Mindanao Examiner BlogSpot site (Oct 17): Abu Sayyaf frees 2 German hostages in Philippines















Latest photos posted by Aboo Rami on his Twitter account show German hostage Stefan Viktor Okonek and members of the militant Abu Sayyaf group. And previous photos of the hostages. (Mindanao Examiner)

Abu Sayyaf militants have freed two German hostages late Friday after receiving ransoms in southern Philippines.

The hostages - Stefan Viktor Okonek, 71, and Henrike Diesen, 55, were recovered by policemen near a checkpoint in Patikul town in Sulu province and were immediately whisked by the military to a camp in Jolo town.

Military sources said the hostages would be brought to Zamboanga City before flying to Manila where they would be handed to Philippine and German officials.

Aboo Rami, an Abu Sayyaf spokesman, has told a radio station that ransoms were paid for the safe release of the Germans, but he did not elaborate. The militants have originally demanded P250 million ransoms in exchange for the hostages and for Germany to cease all support to US coalition campaign against ISIS which is fighting for Islamic caliphate.

The German yachters were intercepted at sea by the Abu Sayyaf on April 25 while heading to Sabah in Malaysia from a holiday in the Philippines.

The release of the Germans came hours after Philippine security forces have launched an operation in an effort to capture Abu Sayyaf militants holding foreign hostages in Sulu.

The Abu Sayyaf had threatened to kill the hostages if the military launches a combat operation against the notorious group tied to Jemaah Islamiya and al-Qaeda. Arab or Indonesian militants are also among the Filipino militants guarding the hostages.

Officials said police and military, armed with arrest warrants, are presently intensifying law enforcement operations following threats by the Abu Sayyaf - which recently pledged allegiance to jihadist group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria or ISIS - to kill the Germans.

“We have collaborated with the military in assisting us to intensify the conduct of law enforcement operations here in Sulu with the present situation that the province has been confronting. Currently, our military and police strengthens the conduct of patrols and checkpoints in order to serve the warrants of arrest to Abu Sayyaf bandits who are responsible for the series of kidnapping and other high profile crimes in the area,” Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz, Jr, head of the Special Anti-Kidnapping Task Force and the Joint Task Force ZAMBASULTA (Zamboanga, Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi), said in a statement released by the military’s Western Mindanao Command.

The Western Mindanao Command said police and military authorities are ready and willing to shift from law enforcement operations to tactical options should the Special Action Committee of Sulu come up with a resolution that would allow security forces to advance with their operations.

“The Western Mindanao Command continues to support the PNP’s law enforcement operations under the guidance of the Special Actions Committee in Sulu,” said Lieutenant General Rustico Guerrero, head of the Western Mindanao Command.

He said the ongoing joint police and military operations cover the implementation of warrants of arrest, search and seizure, and other law enforcement activities against the members of the Abu Sayyaf group.

The Philippine military has deployed K9 units in Sulu to help ground troops search for at least 7 foreigners being held by the Abu Sayyaf.

Marine Captain Maria Rowena Muyuela, a spokeswoman for Western Mindanao Command, said: “The K9 teams will help track down the Abu Sayyaf as military troops continue to pursue the bandits in their hiding places. Intensified law enforcement operations in coordination with the local government and the police are ongoing to facilitate rescue of kidnap victims and expedite the arrest of Abu Sayyafs in the province.”

Another Abu Sayyaf faction also threatened to kill Malaysian fish breeder Chan Sai Chuin, 32, who was kidnapped along with a Filipino worker on June 16 this year from a fish farm in the town of Kunak in Tawau District. The militants are demanding 3 million ringgits (P41 million) for the safe release of the fish breeder.

It is also holding captive a Malaysian policeman Kons Zakiah Aleip, 26, who was seized on June 12 also this year following a clash in Sabah that killed another policeman. The militants are demanding 5 million ringgits (P68.3 million)

The Abu Sayyaf is also holding a 64-year old Japanese treasure hunter Katayama Mamaito, who was kidnapped from Pangutaran Island in July 2010; and two European wildlife photographers Ewold Horn, 52, from Holland; and Lorenzo Vinciguerre, 47, from Switzerland, who were taken captive in the coastal village of Parangan in Panglima Sugala town in the southern Tawi-Tawi province in 2012.

The 1st Infantry Division has sent two battalions of soldiers in Sulu to help in the operation, said Brigadier General Gerardo Barrientos, Jr. He said the new unit is “equally capable of addressing various threats and emergencies.”

This was on top of 100 Special Forces soldiers from Zamboanga City that were sent to Sulu on October 8 to help other units fight the Abu Sayyaf.

The Abu Sayyaf group, formed by Ustadz Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani in 1992, continues to recruit members to fight the government in their attempt to set up a strict Islamic state in Mindanao. The group now has hundreds of members in the Muslim autonomous region.

The military has failed to stop the growing influence and violent campaigns of the militant group tied to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya mainly because it did not sustain the combat operations needed to wipe out the Abu Sayyaf in the restive region. Much of the military's huge budget goes to combat operations and its modernization program.

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