By Hader Glang
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
Two Germans held hostage by an al-Qaeda-linked militant group in the southern Philippines have launched another radio appeal to Berlin to save their lives.
“I have not gotten any medicine and my situation here is not better than before. I’m very weak and I’m imprisoned,” 71-year-old Stefan Viktor Okonek told Radio Mindanao in a live phone call until Monday. “I cannot do the right thing… It’s a terrible situation.”
The phone call was recorded Saturday, but the radio station had delayed its release. It was their captives' second phone call to the radio station in a week.
The couple disappeared in waters off Palawan Island on April 25 while sailing to Malaysia for a holiday, and were reported missing after Filipino fishermen spotted their empty yacht.
Earlier this month, the Abu Sayyaf threatened to behead one of them October 10 – later extending the deadline to October 17 - unless a P250-million ($5.62-million) ransom is paid and Germany stops supporting a U.S.-led campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
Okonek also told the station he is already experiencing difficulty in walking and that his condition continues to deteriorate each day.
"I beg my government and I beg the people of the Philippines to try all to get me and my wife free,” Okonek pleaded, adding that they were only given steamed rice for food.
Herike Diesen, 55, once again expressed her wishes to reunite with their family in Germany.
Describing the condition of her husband amid captors who heavily guarded them, she added, “I tried keeping him away from everything and he is sleeping a lot and I try to keep him covered and warm and that’s all I can do.”
Last Thursday, a spokesperson, who claimed to be speaking for the Abu Sayyaf, told local radio that the ransom deadline had been extended.
"After October 17, 2014, Friday, at 3 p.m., you will not see one of them alive. It will be seen by the public so that we can show that we are not playing games," Abu Rame had stated.
The day before, army chief Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr. said that the German embassy and a crisis committee in Sulu province – an Abu Sayyaf stronghold – had begun negotiations for the couple’s release.
He was quick to clarify in an interview with Manila DZBB "Super Radio" that the military is not involved in the talks as they run contrary to the army’s policy of not negotiating with rebels and “terrorists.”
“We cannot just go there [and] do the rescue, and then all of a sudden those who will be rescued will be part of the collateral damage,” he said.
On September 26, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin ordered the deployment of additional troops to the area, while stressing that the government would not negotiate over the ransom demand.
Since 1991, the Abu Sayyaf -- armed with mostly improvised explosive devices, mortars and automatic rifles -- has carried out bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and extortions in a self-determined fight for an independent Islamic province in the Philippines.
It is notorious for beheading victims after ransoms have failed to be paid for their release.
ISIL has captured large swathes of land in Iraq and Syria, later declaring the territories under its control an Islamic "caliphate." The U.S. and its Arab allies began bombing ISIL targets inside Syria in late September, after conducting airstrikes in Iraq since August.
www.aa.com.tr/en
