Kidnapped Irish priest freed in the Philippines
Posted: 12 November 2009 0601 hrs

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ZAMBOANGA, Philippines: Kidnapped Irish priest Michael Sinnott emerged from over a month in the jungles of the southern Philippines on Thursday, declaring himself in good health and eager to continue his missionary work.

Muslim rebels delivered the 79-year-old to Philippine authorities before dawn, ending a kidnap drama that began on October 11 when six gunmen abducted him from his Catholic missionary compound in the volatile south of the country.

"I am very fine, thank you," a smiling but unshaven Sinnott told reporters at an air force base in Zamboanga city before flying to Manila to meet President Gloria Arroyo.

"I would like to thank everyone who helped to get me free and all my friends who prayed for me while I was in captivity."

Sinnott, who had heart surgery four years ago, said he had been forced to live in extremely tough conditions on the tropical island of Mindanao, with his abductors leading him from marshy swamps to jungles.

"They treated me very well. (But) conditions were very primitive. We were living in the open under a trapal," he said, using a local word for a tarpaulin or makeshift tent.

Nevertheless, after decades in the Philippines as a missionary for the Society of Saint Columbans, Sinnott said he wanted to continue living in the region.

"I hope I can go back to Pagadian," he said, referring to the southern Philippine city from where he was abducted.

"(But) I do not know... that has to be discussed with many other people besides myself."

Local military commander Major-General Ben Dolorfino earlier said a Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), had delivered Sinnott to Philippine authorities.

"He was turned over to us by the MILF," Dolorfino said. "This is a big confidence-building measure in forthcoming peace talks."

The news came the same day as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was due to arrive in the Philippines for a visit in which security issues such as the Muslim insurgency were expected to be on the agenda.

The Philippine military, the Society of Saint Columbans and the Irish government said no ransom had been paid to secure Sinnott's release, despite the kidnappers earlier demanding two million dollars.

"To do so would only have jeopardised the vital work of aid workers and missionaries around the world -- it would also place other Irish citizens in danger," Irish Foreign Minister Michael Martin said in Dublin.

It remained unclear on Thursday which group was behind Sinnott's abduction.

The MILF maintained it was not responsible, as earlier alleged by the Philippine government, while seeking to take credit for Sinnott's release.

"We convinced them (kidnappers) to hand him over to us," Mohaqer Iqbal, the MILF's chief negotiator in peace talks with the government, told AFP. "We got them to release him through pressure, by talking with their relatives, moral persuasion."

Iqbal insisted the kidnappers had no links to the MILF, but refused to give their identities. "I cannot name them," he said.

In his short press conference, Sinnott indicated local MILF commanders not under the full control of the rebel group's leadership were responsible.

"They said they were the lost command," Sinnott said, using a common term for so-called rogue MILF commanders, adding the kidnappers told him they abducted him to get a ransom.

The MILF and the government have in recent months been trying to restart peace talks, which were suspended last year after the rebels launched a series of deadly raids on Christian settler communities in Mindanao.

The attacks claimed scores of lives and displaced more than half a million civilians, about 300,000 of whom remain in evacuation centres, according to international aid agencies.

The 12,000-strong MILF has been waging a rebellion for an independent Islamic state in the southern third of the mainly Catholic Philippines since 1978.


- AFP/de/so