American Missionary Is Released Unharmed by Muslim Kidnapers

Looking shaken but healthy, American evangelist missionary Brian Lawrence was freed by his heavily armed Moslem kidnapers Friday after six days of captivity in the jungles of Mindanao.

Military authorities said no ransom was paid, and that the kidnapping was solved by Moslem princess Tarhata Alonto Lucman, the head of a powerful family in the Moslem-dominated region in northwestern Mindanao. Lawrence, 30, of Madison, Wis., was freed about 30 hours after another gang of Moslem kidnapers freed 10 Roman Catholic nuns, who had been held in a separate jungle hideaway for six days.

After his release, Lawrence said his captors had no idea what his name or nationality was when they seized him last Saturday night. He said his captors told him their primary demand for his release was political autonomy for the Moslems in the region.

Lawrence was abducted by about a dozen armed men from the two-story home where he and his wife, Carol Ann, have been studying the local language and customs for the past 18 months.