Red Cross Hostage In Philippines Freed

[sbk]

Red Cross hostage in Philippines freed

Fri Apr 17, 2009 9:52pm EDT

MANILA, April 18 (Reuters) - Islamic rebels in the Philippines have freed a Swiss Red Cross worker they have held for over three months, Defence Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said on Saturday.

"Our operatives have recovered Notter and he is alive," Teodoro said on local radio, referring to Andreas Notter, 38, one of two European hostages held by the Abu Sayyaf group.

He said the Swiss national was in the home of provincial Governor Abdusakur Tan and was receiving medical attention.

Military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Edgar Arevalo told reporters Notter was found by troops in the interior of the remote island of Jolo, but local police chief Jesus Verzosa said he was left behind when a police team chased a group of rebels who had tried to break the cordon around the guerrilla camp.

The Abu Sayyaf rebels also hold Italian Eugenio Vagni.

The two men and Filipina Mary Jean Lacaba, all officers of the International Committee of the Red Cross, were abducted on Jan. 15 when they were on a field visit to a prison on the island of Jolo, a bastion of the Abu Sayyaf.

Lacaba was freed by the rebels earlier this month.

Tan, the provincial governor, had sent a team of Muslim clerics to the rebel camp in the interior of Jolo earlier this week to seek the release of Vagni, a 62-year-old who is reportedly suffering from hernia.

There was no word on any progress.

The Abu Sayyaf, a small but violent militant group based on Jolo and nearby Basilan, had earlier demanded that troops relax the tight cordon they were keeping around the rebel hideout before talks for the hostages' release could start.

The rebel group, with links to the Southeast Asian regional militant network Jemaah Islamiah and to al Qaeda, has been blamed for the worst terrorist attack in the Philippines, the bombing of a ferry in Manila Bay in 2004 that killed 100 people.

It is also notorious for high-profile kidnappings and large ransoms and has a history of beheading captives. (Reporting by Manny Mogato and Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

Source: Reuters