NEWSFLASH
JOLO: ANOTHER FOREIGN HOSTAGE RELEASED
Sulu Jolo Island, Aug. 28, 2000 - South African Callie Strydom was freed by the Abu Sayyaf early today, leaving six foreigners and 12 Filipinos in the bandit band’s mountain lair in Jolo.
Strydom's wife, Monique, was among the 5 foreign hostages released yesterday by the Abu Sayyaf rebels, after Libya agreed to pay $1 million for each, negotiators said.
South African Ambassador Lindiwe Mabuza was in tears when she relayed the good news to her country's president.
The hostages were to be flown later Monday to Tripoli to meet with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Libya has long-standing ties to Muslim rebels in the mostly Catholic Philippines.
Libyan Ambassador Saleem Adam denied that his country was trying to improve its international image by financing the ransom.
``This is a humanitarian mission, he said. ``It has no other motivation.''
Strydom was released despite a rebel demand earlier Monday that negotiators bring them two guerrillas arrested at a bank last week carrying $240,000 before they release more hostages. Negotiators said they were unable to locate the two arrested guerrillas, who were freed on bail Saturday. The cash is reportedly part of the estimated $5.5 million in ransom the rebels had collected for the release of nine Malaysians and a German earlier.
Most of the foreign hostages were kidnapped April 23 from Malaysia's Sipadan diving resort. The Abu Sayyaf also seized three French television journalists last month who were covering the hostage crisis. Also at the Abu Sayyaf camp are a dozen Christian evangelists led by TV preacher Wilde Almeda, who paid $3,500 to visit the rebels' camp to pray for the captives.
The rebels have insisted on freeing the hostages in batches to avert any military attack.
Chief government negotiator Robert Aventajado said a ``global agreement'' has been reached for the release of all the hostages within two weeks.
Still in captivity are one French, one German and two Finns kidnapped from the Malaysian resort, two French journalists, and the 12 Filipino evangelists.
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