Soldiers rescue two child hostages in Philippines

Jim Gomez

Sunday, May 21, 2000 | 3:02 a.m.

JOLO, Philippines - Philippine soldiers rescued two child hostages Sunday in a clash with Muslim rebels who had held the children and seven others since March.

One soldier and several rebels were injured in the one-hour battle on the southern Philippine island of Basilan, the military said. The remaining seven hostages - five students and two female teachers - were still believed to be held by the rebels, said Ernesto de Guzman, the Philippine military's Southern Command chief of staff.

The two grade-school children were among a group of about 50 people seized by the Abu Sayyaf rebels from two schools on March 20. Six have been killed and most of the rest either released or rescued in the intervening weeks.

Also Sunday, negotiators were in Manila to consult President Joseph Estrada before finally beginning talks on freedom for a separate group of hostages kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf 29 days ago.

With the president's approval, negotiations could begin as soon as Monday on the southern island of Jolo, where the 21 hostages - three Germans, two French, two Finns, two South Africans, a Lebanese, nine Malaysians and two Filipinos - were taken after they were snatched from a Malaysian diving resort. Formal talks have been delayed by skirmishes between the rebels and troops, frequent changes in the government negotiating team and security arrangements for negotiations on the volatile island.

At the meeting, chief negotiator Robert Aventajado expects the rebels to submit a document outlining their demands. He also wants a response to the government's request that the rebels free an ill German hostage as a show of good will.

The Abu Sayyaf, the smaller and more radical of the two guerrilla groups fighting for an independent Islamic state in the southern Philippines, brought world attention to a rebellion that has simmered for decades when they kidnapped the group of tourists and employees from the Malaysian island of Sipadan and brought them to the jungle on Jolo, about an hour away. Their preliminary demands have ranged from money to the creation of an Islamic state.

More than 200,000 people have been displaced in recent months by the worst wave of violence in the southern Philippines in years, triggered by clashes between troops and the two rebel groups.

The fighting has been limited to the impoverished south, home of the mostly Christian country's Muslim minority, but several bomb attacks have hit the capital, Manila, since the rebels threatened to target large cities.

On Sunday, a bomb exploded in Manila's largest shopping mall, killing one person and injuring 11 others. The larger rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, denied any involvement. Four days earlier, an explosion at another shopping mall injured 13.

In the south on Saturday, rebels bombed a restaurant frequented by Christians in North Cotabato province, seriously wounding 10 people, military officials said. Also Saturday, a Philippine navy ship was hit by mortar fire as it was patrolling a river near the main MILF camp, officials said.