Philippine Rebels Holding 21 Break Impasse, Urge Resumption of Talks

For more than a week now, there have been no fresh pictures of the 21 hostages on the Philippine island of Jolo--not since 11 European journalists bribed their way into the captors’ encampment and were forced to pay $25,000 more to ransom themselves out.

But the word reaching diplomats and intermediaries trying to resolve the nearly 2-month-old standoff is that the captives continue to discover new depths of despair with each passing day, trapped in a hellish tug of war between boredom and terror.

Two of the captives, Renate Wallert of Germany and Stephane Loisy of France, have fallen into “very serious condition,” the Abu Sayyaf rebels holding the hostages informed Philippine authorities Thursday, urging swift resumption of negotiations on their demand for $20 million for the captives’ release.

Nerves have frayed all around in the crisis that began when the heavily armed Islamic insurgents kidnapped Wallert, husband Werner and son Marc; 10 Malaysians; two French; two Finns; two South Africans; a Filipina and a Lebanese early Easter Sunday from a remote Malaysian resort island. The hostages were smuggled by boat into the wilds of the southern Philippine guerrilla stronghold.

The appeal by Abu Sayyaf for new talks after a four-day “cooling-off period” imposed Monday by the Philippine government may be a sign that Manila’s posture of patience and caution has worked to put the onus on the rebels to break the protracted impasse.

Or, as government officials from the Philippines and countries such as Germany work diligently for release of the captives, the latest missive may be yet another flicker of hope that will be cruelly extinguished.

“We must accept the reality that this isn’t going to be resolved quickly,” Ronaldo Zamora, an advisor to Philippine President Joseph Estrada, told journalists in Manila, the Philippine capital, after the rebels’ latest contact.

During this week’s pause for reflection, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer consulted with his counterparts from France and Finland to work out a common position among the European governments involved to present to Manila. The three agreed, according to a German Foreign Ministry communication, that the hostages’ safety is paramount and that no actions be undertaken that could expose them to danger.

That message was a reaction to a comment last week from the Philippines’ frustrated chief negotiator, Robert Aventajado, who said a commando raid to free the hostages was now an option.

The European diplomats also have had harsh words for journalists, along with appeals for them to stop complicating the fragile negotiations by inserting themselves into a situation beyond any government’s control.

Referring to an incident earlier this month in which 11 journalists--nine of them Germans--were themselves held captive during a visit to Jolo until colleagues cobbled together $25,000 to free them, the foreign ministers beseeched media to keep their distance and to show “responsibility and consideration for the hostages.”

The German news reports from the camp captured the despondency of the hostages, many still wearing the same clothes they wore when they were seized eight weeks ago and deprived of decent food, enough water and anything to read except rebel propaganda.

Only about one-fourth of the food, water and medicine delivered by humanitarian intermediaries actually reaches the hostages, Wallert, 57, told Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine during the visit. The hostages have since been separated into two groups and moved from a reed hut to an open camp elsewhere on the island, German government officials in Berlin have been told.

“We are ever more uncertain if we’ll ever get out of here,” Wallert, who suffers from a circulatory disorder that makes it difficult for her to walk, told the magazine. “We are dying here, and there’s nothing you can do.”