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| Southeast Asia |
| Philippines: Hostage suffering from poor health, says official |
| 2009-04-23 |
| [ADN Kronos] The Philippines Red Cross has declined to comment on media reports that an Italian aid worker kidnapped by Islamic militants is unable to walk due to failing health after three months in captivity. Eugenio Vagni, 62, is reported to be in need of surgery for a hernia but a Red Cross spokeswoman in Manila refused to confirm or deny reports about his health. According to the Filipino daily, Manila Bulletin, the military on Wednesday confirmed that Vagni was alive but could no longer walk because he has a hernia. Islamic militants from the separatist Abu Sayyaf seized Vagni and two other Red Cross workers on the southern island of Jolo in January. Filipina hostage Mary Jean Lacaba was released on 2 April while Swiss captive Andreas Notter was freed on Saturday. Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Edgar Arevalo told the media in a statement that Vagni could no longer walk. Security officials hope that Vagni's immobility forces his captors to release him, said Lieutenant-Colonel Edgard Arevalo, a spokesman for the kidnapping crisis. "The 62 year-old Italian ICRC worker Eugenio Vagni is alive but under tight guard. Reports say he is well but unable to walk due to a hernia," Arevalo said. Government officials said they have been using all possible means of communication to re-establish contact with the Abu Sayyaf and deliver medical supplies to Vagni. Arevalo also told the media that the Abu Sayyaf had splintered into small groups in a ploy to confuse security forces in the jungles of Indanan and nearby towns. "Aside from the calibrated pressure to deny the bandits freedom of movement, the kidnappers are saddled with the fact that Vagni is not ambulant and must be carried as they move," Arevalo said. The Abu Sayyaf was founded in the 1990s in a bid to establish an independent Islamic state. The group later branched off into high-profile abductions and bombings. The abduction of the Red Cross personnel is the most high-profile kidnapping of foreign nationals since 2001, when two dozen tourists were kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf militants from an island resort in the western Philippines. An American tourist was beheaded, a second was killed during a military operation and the third was rescued. The Red Cross, Pope Benedict XVI and the Italian and Swiss governments have appealed to the militants to release all three hostages. |
| Posted by:Fred |