Abu Sajaf kidnapping case

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The abductees' journey by boat to Jolo

The abduction case Abu Sajaf describes the kidnapping of foreign tourists on the Philippine island of Jolo by the Islamist terrorist organization Abu Sajaf in 2000.

Course of the hostage situation

On Easter Sunday, April 23, 2000, 21 tourists and hotel employees of a hotel company specializing in diving holidays on the Malaysian island of Sipadan off the east coast of Borneo in the Celebes Sea were brought into the hands of kidnappers of the Islamist terrorist organization Abu Sajaf. The kidnappers around the leader Ghalib Andang drove over the water in speedboats and stormed the idyllic vacation paradise, masked and with assault rifles in hand. They kidnapped the vacationers under threat of execution on their speedboats across the Sulu Sea to the Philippine island of Jolowith the exception of an American couple who, even after being hit by the butt of their rifles and under threat of execution, had refused to get into a boat.

Among the abducted were three tourists from Göttingen , Renate Wallert, her husband Werner and their son Marc. The hostages were taken to a camp in the middle of the jungle . After a violent attempt to rescue the Filipino army, the hostages and their guards were postponed several times. The kidnappers were later followed by around three dozen journalists who stayed in hotels on the island and were able to visit the jungle camps on several occasions, which meant that the German public on television saw Renate Wallert in particular. After twelve weeks of imprisonment with threats of violence and death and the constant use of firearms by the kidnappers, she was at the end of her nerves.

The terrorists released Renate Wallert as the first hostage because of her poor mental health. She was then immediately flown to Germany, where, after a medical examination at the Göttingen Clinic, she was found to be in a “surprisingly good” general condition. Her husband was not released until August 27, 2000 after being held hostage for 127 days and, after 140 days, his son Marc, as one of the last hostages.

The then Libyan head of state Muammar al-Gaddafi and the Gaddafi International Foundation of Charitable Associations (GIFCA) under the leadership of Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi are said to have paid around 25 million US dollars. The long-awaited release of the hostages had apparently failed because of a ransom dispute between the Libyan negotiator Rajab Assaruk and the Abu Sajaf terrorists. Libya's ransom payment to Abu Sajaf is generally seen as Libya's entry to correct its international ostracism as a result of Libya's involvement in the Lockerbie attack and is partly attributed to the background influence of the German Foreign Ministry under Joschka Fischer and the activity of the crisis team. The money was publicly declared as development aid; However, official statements on a ransom payment were not available from the State Department in this case or in other kidnapping cases, as always. The hostages freed from the hands of the Abu Sajaf made a stopover in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates after their release. The German Werner Wallert from Göttingen and the five other western hostages then traveled on to Tripoli to meet Muammar al Gaddafi. On September 12, 2000, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer traveled to Tripoli to thank the Libyan leadership for their help in releasing the hostages in the Philippines.

Werner Wallert said after his liberation: "I would be happy if I read someday that they had been arrested and brought to their just fate." Ghalib Andang, the head of the terrorist organization, who had given himself the battle name "Commander Robot" , was arrested in 2003. He was seriously injured and lost a leg in the shooting during arrest. He was shot dead on March 15, 2005 in a prison revolt on the outskirts of Manila.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Clinic: "Renate Wallert is doing surprisingly well". In: Spiegel Online . July 18, 2000, accessed June 9, 2018 .
  2. Katja Thimm: "Gallows humor also helps" . In: Der Spiegel . No. 12 , 2020, p. 92-95 ( Online - Mar. 14, 2020 ).