ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 5, 2012) – Abu Sayyaf militants with links to al-Qaeda has demanded $2 million dollars in exchange for the safe release of kidnapped Australian adventurer Warren Rodwell in the southern Philippines.
The ransom demand was made in a video sent to Rodwell’s Filipina wife Miraflor Gutang before Christmas.
The video, aired by the cable television news network Net25 in Manila late Wednesday, showed Rodwell with a wound in his right hand and looking frail and haggard in what appeared a tent in the middle of a forest.
Rodwell also appealed for his safety.
“To my family please do whatever to raise the two million US dollars they are asking for my release as soon as possible. To the government, to the Filipino government especially the government of Zamboanga Sibugay, Rommel, I’m appealing to you please help me to coordinate with my family to raise to whatever money is being asked.”
“To the Australian embassy here in the Philippines, this is your constituent appealing for his life and safety. Please help facilitate to give the group the demand. Yes, I was former army of my country but it is differently particularly the terrain. The only solution to ensure my safety is to go with whatever they need. If I’m given my last wish, my last wish is to please help me out of here alive please Madame Ambassador,” the distressed Rodwell said in the video.
Brig. Gen. Noel Coballes, a regional army commander, said the kidnappers also sent four photographs of Rodwell to his wife before Christmas and has confirmed that the Abu Sayyaf is demanding “millions of pesos” in ransom.
Zamboanga Gov. Rommel Jalosjos has imposed a news blackout on the kidnapping, but the video surfaced just a day after military commanders had their New Year’s gathering in Manila.
In Australia, Sen. Bob Brown has urged Canberra to connect the family of Rodwell with private sector experts, in line with a Senate committee’s findings, according to ABC Radio.
One of eight recommendations the Senate committee made in a report tabled in parliament in November last year was for government agencies to alert families to the services provided by consultants and to fully cooperate with the hired parties.
Brown, who helped broker the release of Australian photojournalist Nigel Brennan in Somalia in 2009, said it was important the government connect families of hostages to private consultants.
It was vital the family received advice from the government very early on about who had the best expertise to secure Mr Rodwell or any other citizen’s release, Brown said.
He said the government should explain the limitations of government assistance to the family, including the policy of refusing to pay a huge ransom.
“(It should) tell the family and give the family the best advice available about who they should contact in the private sector to help work through a kidnapping situation which is going to be different every time and different in each country,” he told ABC Radio.
“It’s difficult advice because the one thing governments won’t do, around the world, is pay massive ransoms for people who are kidnapped in the main.”
Brown, who contributed to the ransom of more than $600,000 in Mr Brennan’s case, along with other business identities, said the situation was very delicate and he did not want terrorists to get the wrong message.
“I don’t think it’s a matter of primarily approaching people who may have money,” he said. “That’s a very, very difficult thing to do and clearly the onus here is on the government to give good advice and the family to do the best they can to be able to; if necessary find money and sometimes the public may be able to help there. But really I wouldn’t like to give public advice on how people should best go about that.” (Mindanao Examiner)
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