Foreign leaders yesterday appealed to President Joseph Estrada of the Philippines not to use force against Muslim rebels holding 21 mainly foreign hostages on the southern Philippines island of Jolo.
However, the possibility of a negotiated end to the crisis suffered a setback yesterday when the rebels divided their captives into five groups and repeatedly tried to break through a cordon of 2,000 troops surrounding their jungle hideout.
In a separate hostage drama on the nearby island of Basilan, Islamic guerrillas sprayed gunfire on a group of Filipino captives, killing a priest and three others, after tying their hands behind their backs, as a military patrol approached.
Fifteen of the 27 hostages, mainly Catholic schoolchildren, escaped, although five were wounded. Eight other hostages are unaccounted for. Colleagues of Father Ruel Gallardo said the 34-year-old priest was tortured during his captivity, and that the kidnappers, members of the extremist Abu Sayyaf group, pulled out his nails and beat him daily.
The Philippine Defence Secretary, Mr Orlando Mercado, told reporters that all 21 hostages on Jolo are alive, discounting radio reports that two had escaped or that some were killed in fighting on the island, 960 km south of Manila.
The Philippine President has so far allowed the military to handle the situation on Jolo, fuelling concerns that the crisis might end in a bloody shoot-out. The hostages, snatched from a Malaysian diving resort on Easter Sunday, include 10 Malaysians, three Germans, two French nationals, two South Africans, two Finns, one Lebanese and a Filipina. The Abu Sayyaf group is demanding a ransom and the release of Islamic militants convicted of the World Trade Centre bombing in New York.
"We want to save the lives of the hostages, and that has to take priority over everything else," the German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, said after speaking to the Philippine leader on the telephone. "It especially has to take priority over any domestic political considerations. That is what we are working on."
The German government spokesman, Mr Uwe-Karsten Heye, said: "We are relying on the assurances of the Philippine government that force will not be used. Violence would be fraught with risks for the hostages." President Jacques Chirac of France yesterday told the parents of Ms Stephanie Loisy, one of the French hostages, that no effort would be spared to obtain the captives' release. He asked Mr Estrada to refrain from any action that could endanger the lives of the hostages.
The Malaysian Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, said yesterday that President Estrada had given Malaysia assurances that the military would not use force on Jolo. The Prime Minister of Finland, Mr Paavo Lipponen, wrote to Mr Estrada urging the Philippines to solve the crisis "in a way that does not put the safety of the hostages in jeopardy".
Although a Reuters photographer on Jolo said troops fired mortars every 30 minutes throughout Wednesday night, a military officer claimed there was no danger to hostages.
AFP reports:
A negotiator attempting to secure the release of the 21 hostages on Jolo threatened to quit yesterday unless Philippine government troops lifted their siege on their captors. Mr Nur Misuari's warning came as the military announced that troops had clashed with the Abu Sayyaf rebels late on Wednesday, wounding one of the group's leaders.
But Mr Mercado said the military would not pull back, as it had to ensure the safety of the hostages.
Mr Mercado identified five of the Abu Sayyaf leaders holding the hostages. Mr Mujib Susukan is the leader of the Muslim extremist group on Jolo. Mr Mercado said he had been slightly injured in the firefight with government troops on Wednesday, but denied reports he had been killed.
Mr Susukan was involved in the abduction of three foreign nuns in the early 1990s.
Mr Ghalib Andang, also known as "Commander Robot", is a former member of the Philippines' main Muslim separatist group, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). He left the group in the early 1980s when Mr Nur Misuari, then the MNLF chairman, began negotiating for peace with the government.
Mr Andang turned to banditry, including kidnapping, and joined Abu Sayyaf in the late 1980s. "Doctor Abu," also known as Mr Abdin Jundain, provides first aid to Abu Sayyaf members when they are injured.
Mr Sajid Hayudini is suspected of being behind the killing of Bishop Benjamin de Jesus of Jolo in 1997.
The fifth member of the group, Mr Radullan Sahiron, is believed by the police and the military to have taken part in the attack on the largely Christian town of Ipil in 1995, in which more than 50 people were killed.