Saturday, December 12, 2009

Tribal Gunmen Hostage dozens of People

The Mapatuan Massacre in Maguindanao in not yet been solve, the government did all their best to solve this case but now here is another problem that the government face it. Read this news :

The small group of gunmen raided a school in a small farming village in the Agusan valley region of the southern island of Mindanao on Thursday and took 75 hostages, including children and relatives of their local rivals.
Twenty-eight hostages, including 18 children were later freed.
"I outlined to them a certain scenario that would happen if they refused to release the remaining hostages," local social worker Josefina Bajade, the chief government negotiator in the crisis, told AFP.

She would not discuss details. Provincial government officials later met the most senior police and military officials of Agusan del Sur province here to consider their options.
The officials gave no comment but security sources told AFP on condition of anonymity that the use of force to end the crisis could not be ruled out.
About 400 soldiers and police have deployed in the area amid concern that the kidnappers would harm the hostages, who have been forced to sleep on the ground due to the primitive conditions there, according to government officials who visited the area.
The security sources said there were 19 kidnappers armed with assault rifles who were guarding 47 captives held in and around a hut in a clearing of a thickly forested mountain.
They said that while these people had not received formal combat training, they were convinced that the suspects would not hesitate to kill the hostages, noting that some of them have outstanding arrest warrants for clan war-related murders.
"There are 47 hostages still -- 45 men and two women," Santiago Cane, the vice governor of the province who joined the negotiator in her visit to the gunmen's hideout on Friday, when they also delivered food.
"We will continue to negotiate in the hope of producing results," he told AFP.
Bajade visited the gunmen's hideout in a mountainous area early Saturday but returned grim-faced in mid-morning, having failed to win the release of any more hostages after two successful visits that saw the release of 28 others.
Bajade insisted that the government had not set a deadline.
Authorities have identified the gunmen as members of the Manobo tribe, and said the abduction was linked to a long-running clan dispute involving another Manobo family.
Cane said the gunmen's leader, Ondo Perez, told the negotiator he was willing to end the hostage crisis if the government arrested his local rival Joel Tubay and his armed followers, who the official said also have outstanding arrest warrants for murder.
The kidnappers were wary of retribution against their relatives if they surrendered and the Tubay group remained at large, he added.

Cane said the two clans have a long-standing dispute over land that he said has led to several deaths on both sides.
The mass kidnapping was part of a wave of violence that has swept the southern Philippines, where Muslim and communist insurgents mix with warring clans, pirates and corrupt officials.
Islamist militants on the southern island of Basilan are holding three hostages after beheading another captive on Wednesday.

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