Paris, Wednesday, August 30, 2000

New Hostage Is a Prize For Philippine Rebels

American Worth More Than Others, They Say

The Abu Sayyaf rebels, who have been holding a group of Europeans, South Africans and Asians for four months, said in a radio broadcast that ''we have been trying very hard to get an American.''

They identified him as Jeffrey Craig Schilling, 24, claimed he was an agent for the Central Intelligence Agency and said, ''We will not hesitate to execute this American guy if the Philippine government and the United States will not listen to our demands.'' They said they would announce their demands within three days. The group executed two Filipino hostages this year after failing to get Washington to release several Arab terrorists imprisoned in the United States in connection with the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993.

The Philippine government confirmed the abduction, saying an envoy had seen Mr. Schilling being held in an Abu Sayyaf camp. The American Embassy in Manila said it was sending six officials to Zamboanga, the nearest city, where Mr. Schilling had been living for several months with his Philippine fiancée.

The abduction was the latest twist in a kidnapping spree that started April 23 when Abu Sayyaf gunmen abducted 21 hostages, most of them Westerners, from a diving resort on a nearby Malaysian island. Since then, several hostages have been freed and several more have been seized.

Before Mr. Schilling's abduction, the gunmen were holding six Westerners and a dozen Filipinos.

Six other Westerners were freed Sunday and Monday in exchange for reported payments of $1 million each. Libya acted as the go-between in these releases, raising the possibility that the United States might find itself turning to Libya for help in freeing Mr. Schilling. A Libyan official said Tuesday that Tripoli would be happy to help if asked.

In the radio interview, the Abu Sayyaf spokesman, Abu Sabaya, suggested that an American should be worth 10 times as much as a European. If the abductors decide to kill Mr. Schilling, he said, ''then next week we will get another hostage and do the same thing to him.''

He added, ''The Americans may think we are afraid of them, but we are really determined to get an American.''

Mr. Schilling's fiancée, Ivi Osani, said he had been curious about life in the southern Philippines and, despite her warnings, had traveled with her to the small island of Jolo where the hostages are being held.

''They have been inviting us to visit Jolo, but we didn't want to go because I knew we would be taken,'' Miss Osani said in a radio interview in Zamboanga. She added that the rebel spokesman was a relative of her mother.

In his own radio interview, the spokesman said the group had become suspicious of Mr. Schilling because he seemed to know less about Islam than he had claimed.

In its negotiations for the Western hostages, the Philippine government has relied on intermediaries from Libya, which for years has had close relations with Muslim separatist fighters.

Some commentators have suggested that Libya's mediating role - including paying a total ransom that has been estimated to be as high as $25 million in ''development aid'' - is an attempt to burnish its international image.

The United States and others have blamed the Libyan leader, Colonel Moammar Gadhafi, for a number of terrorist acts. Two Libyans are now on trial over the bombing in 1988 of a Pan American jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people.

At about the same time Mr. Schilling was being kidnapped, the six recently freed hostages were arriving to a festive welcome in Tripoli after being flown there on a Libyan airliner. The freed hostages, who are from France, Germany, South Africa and Lebanon, were to be sent home later.

''Don't forget the name that delivered you from the humiliation of captivity; that name is Moammar Gadhafi,'' a Libyan official said in a televised speech at the ceremony.

Already, Libya appeared to be reaping political gains from its mediating role. In Tripoli to receive the freed French hostages, the French minister for cooperation, Charles Josselin, said, ''This positive action by Libya in the release of the hostages can clearly only improve relations between our two countries.''

Miss Osani said Mr. Schilling was scheduled to return to the United States on Sunday but had wanted to go to Jolo, an attractive island in the Sulu Sea, ''just for once'' before he left.

She said gunmen had accompanied them by boat from Zamboanga to Jolo and that she realized Mr. Schilling had been kidnapped when he told her to return home alone.

Originally numbering only 200 or so fighters, Abu Sayyaf has focused more on the business of kidnapping than on ideological warfare. Kidnapping is so common in the area that it has been somewhat formalized, with the going rate for ransoms at about $5,000

With the kidnappings of the Western vacationers in April, the island of Jolo became flooded with unheard-of amounts of money. Two of the bandits were arrested last week when they went to a small local bank and tried to change $240,000 into Philippine pesos

But Abu Sayyaf, small as it is, is broken into several factions. Philippine officials say the gunmen's squabbles over tactics and over the division of ransom money have complicated negotiations.

Philippine officials also have complicated negotiations on some occasions with contradictory or threatening public statements. The belligerence of some of the statements contrasts with the helplessness of the government in dealing with kidnappers who have in the past tortured and executed their hostages.

On Tuesday, the spokesman for President Joseph Estrada said the kidnappers had only made matters worse for themselves by seizing an American.

''They're going to galvanize international action against them,'' said the spokesman, Ricardo Puno. ''The world will unite in the realization of what a big problem the Abu Sayyaf poses.''

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