Minors among abductors of ICRC workers in Sulu - source

MANILA, Philippines – Some of the gunmen who kidnapped three workers of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Sulu on Thursday were young boys, a staff member of a foreign-funded aid organization said Friday. Some of the abducted workers who were immediately freed counted at least six minors among a dozen gunmen who seized them, accordiing to the source, who talked with GMANews.TV by phone. The source requested anonymity for security reasons. The gunmen seized the ICRC workers at about 11:30 p.m. on Thursday right inside Sulu’s provincial capitol compound on Jolo Island. Officials identified the captives as Andreas Notter, a 39-year-old Swiss; Eugenio Vagni, an Italian in his mid-60s; and Jean Lacaba, a 37-year-old Filipina. They were on their way to the Jolo airport for their flight to Zamboanga City when they were seized from a vehicle of the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC). The ICRC staff members had just completed a visit to the Sulu Provincial Jail, where they were working on a water and sanitation project to improve living conditions for detainees. They were seized a few hundred meters from the entrance to the jail. The Western Mindanao Command of the Armed Forces said on Friday that the Abu Sayyaf group of Albader Parad was likely behind the kidnapping. Parad’s group was also blamed for the kidnapping last June of ABS-CBN news anchor Ces Drilon and two other employees of the network. Drilon had been quoted as saying some of their abductors were minors. United Nations aid workers have in the past expressed concern over the recruitment of children in Mindanao by rebel groups, including the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the communist New People’s Army (NPA). - GMANews.TV