World

Libya Basks Over Hostage Resolution

August 14, 2000 / 12:56 PM EDT / AP

More than a dozen times, former Libyan Ambassador Abdul Rajab Azzarouq hiked, cane in hand, up a treacherous four-mile jungle path to a Muslim rebel hide-out to negotiate the release of a group of Western hostages.

During the visits, Azzarouq hammered out a multimillion-dollar deal, bankrolled by Libya, under which the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas agreed to release their hostages from nearly four months of captivity.

Libya, long accused by the United States of coddling terrorists, is hoping to cast aside that stigma by helping end the widely publicized hostage crisis. The releases, initially scheduled for Wednesday, were delayed by minor hitches and bad weather and are now expected on Friday.

"Libya in the past has been linked to terrorism by America. This is their way of telling the world that it is not a country that supports terrorism but in fact helps end this kind of problem," said an ambassador of a nation which has several citizens held hostage, insisting on anonymity for fear of jeopardizing negotiations.

Libya clearly hopes to play up its role in the negotiations. A chartered plane from Libya is waiting in Manila to pick up the Western hostages and take them to Tripoli to meet Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi before they return to their home countries.

Planes chartered by Libya also have ferried officials and journalists from the hostages' countries to Tripoli to cover the event.

Azzarouq has denied newspaper reports that Libya is providing as much as $25 million in cash to the Abu Sayyaf, and said negotiators convinced the guerrillas to free their captives in exchange for a Libyan pledge to fund development projects in the southern Philippines.

Azzarouq said Libya was helping purely for humanitarian reasons. The rewards, however, are hard to overlook.

Libya's gesture could win new friends and strengthen old ones, making it easier for Tripoli to gain wider diplomatic acceptance.

"Libya has shown it is very concerned and very supportive of what is happening in the Philippines," said Ricardo Puno, the Philippine presidential press secretary.

The hostage crisis began when a small band of Philippine Muslim rebels, the Abu Sayyaf, crossed into Malaysian waters on April 23 and abducted 21 mostly foreign tourists from a diving resort.

They took their captives to the impoverished southern Philippine island of Jolo, where they seized more people, including journalists covering the kidnapping.

The rebels are now holding 28 hostages -- six French, three Malaysians, two Germans, two Finns, two South Africans and 13 Filipinos -- including three French journalists and a dozen Filipino Christian evangelists who visited the rebels' camp to pray for the hostages.

For years, Libya has mediated between Muslim guerrillas and the Philippine government and helped build schools and mosques in the impoverished south, home to the heavily Roman Catholic country's Musli minority.

The United Nations lifted its economic sanctions against Libya last year after Libya handed over two intelligence agents for trial in the Netherlands in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland.

But the United States maintains unilateral sanctions on Libya, although Washington seems to be warming up to Tripoli. Many suspect Libya may be courting Europeans as political leverage to pressure Washington to lift the sanctions, allowing Libya's full return to the international community.

Libya's oil industry is almost entirely based on American technology, forcing it to buy replacements in the black market at exorbitant prices. Libya earned $6.5 billion from oil and gas last year.

A wider diplomatic acceptance of Libya would considerably boost the country's chances of wooing investors and tourists.

State Secretary Madeleine Albright already is considering lifting travel restrictions, which would make it easier for Americans to visit and do business in Libya.

But the most heartwarming rewards are right in Gadhafi's homeland, where many Libyans says the Philippines situation proves their country is not a terrorist state as Western countries say.

"Those hostages are being held by terrorists and, when someone helps innocent people in any country, it's an honor for Libya," said Walid el-Saudi, 27, who owns a copper shop in the old market of Tripoli. "I'm very proud of what Libya is doing."