Filipino Red Cross hostage: We fear for our lives

Manila - One of three Red Cross workers held hostage by al-Qaida-linked militants said she feared for her life after her captors vowed to behead on of them if Philippine troops don’t pull back next week. The military rejected the ultimatum.

“Time is running out,” Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba told ABS-CBN television by cell phone late Wednesday. She appealed to the Philippine government to act quickly to end the 2{-month-old standoff.

Lacaba said he and her two European colleagues from the International Committee of the Red Cross - Swiss Andreas Notter and Italian Eugenio Vagni - were afraid for their lives “every minute, every second because we don’t know when a firefightill suddenly start.”

Their ordeal entered a critical stage this week after Albader Parad, a key commander with the Abu Sayyaf militant group, threatened to behead a hostage if troops did not withdraw from the group’s jungle stronghold near Indanan town on Jolo island.

Jolo Gov. Abdusakur Tan said thmilitants told a government emissary that the deadline for the troops to withdraw to Jolo town, near Indanan, is Tuesday. The military swiftly rejected the demand, saying the gunmen could not be trusted.

The militants reneged on a pledge to free a hostage last week after nearby troops complied with their nitial demand to move back, military chief Gen. Alexander Yano said.

The Red Cross, saying it was “extremely concerned” about the hostages’ safety, urged the military to consider the withdrawal demand.

“We also reiterate our call to the Philippine authorities to do everything in their power to savethe lives of the hostages and not to take any action that could put our colleagues at risk,” Alain Aeschlimann, the group’s head of operations for East Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said on the Red Cross’ Web site.

“In particular, we urge the government to refrain from further military operationsin the area.”

But a military spokesman said troops might be forced to launch an assault if the militants harm the hostages.

“It may sound a threat, but actually it isn’t. It is but a logical consequence of what they might do,” Jolo-based military spokesman Lt. Col. Edgard Arevalo told reporters. “If they’ll harm or kill the hostages, they will remove the reason for us to talk to them.”

Parad, in the same interview with ABS-CBN television, repeated his earlier promise to free a hostage if troops move farther away - and behead one if they don’t.

Lacaba said the hostages heard gunfire and explosions just above their heads last week after marine snipers fired as the militants tried to breach a loose military cordon, sparking two days of clashes that killed three marines and up to seven guerrillas.

The hostages were not harmed, but Parad later threatened to kill all of them if another clash erupted or if the military tried to rescue them.

Aside from Parad, who has been blamed for past kidnappings and beheadings, marine officials believe government forces have surrounded other Abu Sayyaf commanders and Indonesian militants they have been hunting for years.

The U.S. government has offered an $80,000 reward for Parad’s capture.

The Abu Sayyaf has about 400 gunmen and is on the U.S. list of terrorist groups for its links to al-Qaida and involvement in kidnappings, beheadings and deadly bomb attacks. (the associated Press)

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