Bin Laden backs Muslim insurgents in Philippines

NICOSIA [MENL] -- Muslim insurgents holding 21 hostages in the southern Filipino island of Jolo for the sixth week are being backed by Saudi billionaire bomber Osama Bin Laden.

Leader of the the Abu Sayyaf insurgents, Galib Andang, told the German television network ZDF on Monday that the insurgents are receiving monetary backing from Bin Laden. Abu Sayyaf, is one of the main separatist guerrilla movements in the southern Philippines and this is not the first time the guerrillas have taken hostages.

The hostages including; a Lebanese, two South Africans, three Germans, a French couple, two Finns, two Filipinos and nine Malaysians were kidnapped at a Malaysian resort island on April 23 and brought to Jolo by boat.

Philippine chief government negotiator Roberto Aventajado said he would request that South African national Monique Strydom be freed first because she is pregnant. Styrdom's husband, Carel is also being held hostage. Aventajado also said that he health of German hostage Renate Wallert, who had earlier been reported as being seriously ill, had improved.

Abu Sayyaf is demanding protection of Filipinos immigrants in the east Malaysian state of Sabah, a ban on commercial fishing in Jolo waters and an independent Islamic state.

Aventajado said Philippine Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon had rejected outright the demand for an independent state but offered to proposed to establish a consulate in Sabah.

"I have already given the department of foreign affairs a detailed position paper on that. We have to get [the Malaysian government's] cooperation but initial indication is that it is something that is doable," Aventajado said.