Hopes rise as new Philippine negotiator heads for kidnappers’ camp

Police sources said Ibrahim’s mission was to try to obtain the release of all 21 hostages, or at least evacuate Renate Wallert of Germany and Stephane Loisy of France to a Jolo hospital.

Both are seriously ill and doctors have pleaded for their immediate release. "The next 48 hours will be the most crucial," one police source said.

Ibrahim, a local Muslim cleric, replaced Nur Misuari as chief negotiator on Monday. Provincial police chief superintendent Candido Casimiro said hopes were high that the planned meeting, the first between Manila’s appointed negotiator and the rebels, would lead to a breakthrough."

The presence of the two gentlemen (Aventajado and Azzarouq) is a good sign that the hostages will be released soon," he told AFP.

He said the former Libyan envoy had invaluable experience at hostage negotiations here and had been instrumental in convincing the Abu Sayyaf to free kidnapped Italian and American missionaries as well as Spanish nuns over the past decade.

The Abu Sayyaf guerrillas are holding a family of three Germans, a French couple, a South African couple, two Finns, a Lebanese woman, two Filipinos and nine Malaysians who were snatched from a Malaysian dive resort on April 23.

The group is held in dire conditions in a jungle camp in this southern Philippine island.