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| Southeast Asia |
| Freed Chinese hostage dies |
| 2010-03-02 |
| [Straits Times] ONE of two Chinese men who spent more than three months as a hostage of Al Qaeda-linked Islamic militants in the southern Philippines died on Monday just days after walking free, police said. Oscar Lu, 51, died of kidney failure three days after his ordeal at the hands of Abu Sayyaf captors on the remote island of Basilan ended with him being rushed to hospital in extremely bad health, police said. 'Lu has died of kidney failure. They were famished and extremely dehydrated when they were recovered' last Friday, regional police chief Felizardo Serapio told reporters. Abu Sayyaf militants abducted Lu and Michael Tan, 27, both illegal Chinese immigrants, along with a third employee of Hitech Woodcraft Corp. on Basilan on November 10. The Abu Sayyaf is a small band of militants fighting for a Muslim state in the southern Philippines and is on the US government's list of foreign terrorist organisations. It has been blamed for the nation's worst terrorist attacks, as well as a series of kidnappings. Police said they had 'rescued' Lu and Tan on Friday. But the police and military did not explain the circumstances leading to the recovery of the two hostages, amid reports of a possible ransom payment by their families. The third hostage, Mark Singson, was beheaded a month after being abducted when ransom negotiations broke down. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 C'mon, China--unleash the dragon. It's in all our interests--U.S., China, Japan, and the Philippine government--to eliminate these Abu Sayyaf urchins. |
| Posted by: American Delight 2010-03-02 18:23 |