Videos show Filipino peacekeepers in good condition

https://youtu.be/r-OVb7Cbfv4

MANILA, Philippines—Videos on YouTube indicated the 21 Filipinos remained in good condition, Colonel Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos Jr., Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesman, said Friday.

Burgos said the videos validated reports they were being treated well by the Syrian rebels who seized them Wednesday near the Jamlah village, just a kilometer from the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, where the UN force has patrolled a ceasefire line between Israel and Syria for nearly four decades.

He said negotiations with the rebels were in “progress.”

The rebels demand that Syrian troops pull back from the area around Jamlah, the village near the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war. UN peacekeepers have been monitoring the armistice line since 1974.

The videos showed six of the 21 Filipinos, dressed in camouflage and blue bullet-proof vests emblazoned with the words UN and Philippines, sitting in a room.

In one of the videos, one peacekeeper, who identified himself as Captain Cyrus Meneses of the Philippine Battalion, said that were in a “safe” place.

“We are here safe in this place. We are here because while we are passing through position H-Zero-Alpha to Jamlah, there were bombing and artillery fires,” he said.

“This is why we stopped and, civilian people tell us, for our safety, and distributed us in different places to keep us safe. And they give us good accommodation and give us food to eat and water to drink,” he said.

Another peacekeeper said, “To our family, we hope to see you soon and we are OK here.”

Burgos said the families of the soldiers, mostly from Visayas and Mindanao, have been informed about the condition of the peacekeepers.  With Associated Press