July
17,2000
AP
News
JOLO, Philippines -- The ailing German woman stepped slowly
from a van, a Muslim scarf over her head and a rice sack in her hands containing her belongings.
"Mrs. Wallert, I'm Secretary
Aventajado,'' said the Philippines' chief hostage negotiator. "You're free now.''
The two embraced, and Renate Wallert, 57, began crying.
Wallert's 85 days of captivity with a group of Muslim rebels in a Philippine jungle ended Monday, her 34th wedding anniversary, and she had been forced to leave behind her husband, Werner, and son, Marc.
"I'm sure your husband understands why you have to be separated today,'' Robert Aventajado told Mrs.
Wallert.
Wallert is the first European released by the Abu Sayyaf rebels from a group of 21 mostly foreign hostages abducted from a Malaysian diving resort on April 23. Two Malaysians were freed earlier.
Officials said Wallert's release was a good will gesture by the rebels and no ransom was paid.
Renate Wallert has suffered from high blood pressure and anxiety while being held in the jungle, according to doctors who visited her at the Abu Sayyaf's camp on Jolo island.
Emissaries from the Abu Sayyaf camp brought Wallert to a village where she was met by Aventajado at a small hut. They boarded an armored personnel carrier for the trip to Jolo town, the island's capital.
From there she was flown by helicopter and jet to Manila, about 590 miles to the north, where she boarded a plane home to Germany.
Upon her release, Wallert appeared dazed and weak, and walked slowly. At times she held her side as if in pain.
"I'm tired,'' she said. "I would like to go home right now.''
The hostage negotiations were suspended for more than a month by Aventajado after the rebels' demands began escalating. But contacts resumed last week, and a Malaysian was set free.
The rebels are expected to free all seven remaining Malaysian hostages this week, according to Malaysians working for their release. They may also release more Europeans, perhaps the four remaining women, negotiators say.
"I'm very positive this will result in the release of the other foreign hostages at a faster rate,'' said Maj. Gen. Guillermo Ruiz, the negotiating panel's security adviser.
In the past week, Ghalib Andang, an Abu Sayyaf commander holding most of the hostages, has presented a revised set of demands -- including government assistance for various development projects on
Jolo.
A government negotiator said Andang has dropped an earlier demand for the creation of an independent nation for the Philippines' Muslim minority, but is still asking $1 million for each European hostage.
It is not clear, however, how much control Andang has in the negotiations. Three other Abu Sayyaf leaders have clashed with him over the large ransom demand and withdrawal of the demand for an Islamic state, officials say.
The Abu Sayyaf is the smaller of two groups fighting for a separate Islamic state. The government has seized most of the camps of the larger Moro Islamic Liberation Front since an April offensive.
The military said Monday that about 100 armed men believed to be Moro rebels killed 21 Christians, including a pregnant woman, in a mosque in a remote farming village of Somogot in the southern Philippines.
