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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Kidnappers Reject Manila Offer |
| 2004-07-12 |
| Kidnappers of a Filipino truck driver rejected an apparent ransom offer from Manila and said he had been taken to an undisclosed site for possible execution. Al-Jazeera television quoted the kidnappers yesterday as saying they had extended by 24 hours to Monday night the deadline for the Philippines to agree to their demand to withdraw troops by July 20. The Arabic satellite channel said Angelo dela Cruz had been moved âto the place of implementing the punishment and was given food and water.â âHe asked his body to be handed over to his country as well as another day to send his last message to his president,â Al-Jazeera said, showing a letter it said it received from the group. The channel briefly showed a videotape in which it said Dela Cruz appealed to Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to swiftly withdraw troops from Iraq so he could return to his family alive. Manila has said it will not change its plans to withdraw its 51 humanitarian troops on Aug. 20, and sent its top Middle East diplomat to Baghdad to negotiate for Dela Cruzâs release and has pleaded with the militants not to kill him. A diplomat in Manila earlier said the kidnappers had told Manila through intermediaries that a cash ransom was out of the question. It was unclear how much was offered. âThe captors are committed to their cause and said they cannot be bought,â said the diplomat, who asked not to be named. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 It's disappointing to see any sort of ransom being offered. Perhaps it is the result of a little too much leftover Spanish blood flowing in otherwise proud Philippine veins. Arroyo should know better than to offer money. It just finances more terror. Paying ransoms only magnifies the number of people who get killed. You cannot fight terrorism by sponsoring its acts. The Philippine government has made good inroads on domestic "Kidnap-for-Ransom" syndicates like the notorious Pentagon Gang. Some roll backs of southern Islamic insurgencies have also helped decrease KfR in those areas. However, corrupt police and military elements still participate and thereby impede eradication of ransom gangs. Because of these achievements, Arroyo should better understand the uselessness of negotiating with criminal or terrorist elements. Even if this is a ruse and Malacanang knew their offer in Iraq would be turned down ahead of time, it sends all the exact wrong messages. No matter how politically expedient it might be to have made a play at negotiating, any degree of conciliation with terrorist demands is entirely unproductive. It only encourages more of the same and spreads a critically wrong message of apparent success to other fanatics. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-07-12 9:57:41 PM |