2nd Indonesian escapes Abus

ZAMBOANGA CITY―The second Indonesian sailor who escaped from Abu Sayyaf bandits in Jolo, Sulu province, on the same day his colleague swam to freedom after two months in captivity has been found by Filipino troops, the military said on Thursday.

Maj. Filemon Tan, spokesperson for the military’s Western Mindanao Command, said Ismail Tiro, the chief officer of an Indonesian tugboat seven of whose crew members were kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf on June 23, was found by troops on Wednesday along a road in Luuk town on Jolo Island.

“Military troops were scouring the area looking for other Indonesian hostages when they found Ismail, who identified himself to the military as a kidnap victim,” Tan said.

Mohammad Sofyan, another sailor from Tiro’s tugboat, the TB Charles 001, ran and swam to freedom earlier on Wednesday after the bandits threatened to behead him, Tan said.

 Found floating

Villagers in Bual found Sofyan floating and caught in fishnets along the shore of a mangrove area.

Tan said the two men escaped together at around 1 a.m., Wednesday, but fled in separate ways as their captors chased them.

Sofyan was found at around 7 a.m. Nine hours later, soldiers who were sent back to the area where Sofyan had evaded his captors, found Tiro walking on the road, Tan said.

Tan said Tiro was in the military’s custody and awaiting transport to Jolo for medical examination before before turnover to local authorities there.

It is not uncommon for hostages to try to escape, but very few succeed because they are unfamiliar with terrain and do not speak the local language.

Tan said Tiro was in the custody of the military and would be handed over to authorities in Jolo.

 Freed 6 sailors

Abu Sayyaf bandits kidnapped Sofyan, Ismail and five other crew members of the Charles as it was passing through waters between Tawi-Tawi and Malaysia on June 23 but freed six other sailors, presumably to relay a ransom demand to the vessel’s owner.

The sailors reached their home port in Samarinda, capital of the Indonesian province of East Kalimantan on Borneo Island, on June 25, but there had been no word from the tugboat’s owner since.

Sixteen other foreign hostages―nine Indonesians, five Malaysians, one Norwegian and a Dutchman

―are still held by the Abu Sayyaf, who have become notorious for ransom kidnappings and beheadings of hostages in the South.

At least five Filipinos are also in the hands of the bandits, according to the military.

The bandits beheaded Canadian hostage John Ridsdel in April and another Canadian captive, Robert Hall, in June after they failed to get ransom from the Canadian government.

But they freed Filipino Maritess Flor, whom they seized with the two men and Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad from a marina on Samal Island, Davao del Norte province, in September last year.

Joint patrols

After that attack, security along the coasts in the Celebes Sea area tightened, with Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines undertaking joint patrols following a series of kidnappings of Indonesian sailors and piracy attacks that threatened to undermine commerce in the region.

The joint patrols started in May, driving the Abu Sayyaf to central waters and attacking vessels transporting coal to southern Philippines.

Twenty-four Indonesian crewmen of tugboats and barges have been kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf this year. Ten of them were freed after ransoms were reportedly paid. With reports from Jerome Aning, and the wires