Security forces rescued on Saturday a Swiss Red Cross worker held hostage for three months by the militant Abu Sayyaf guerrillas in Mindanao, government officials said. Andreas Notter, 38, was freed on the outskirts of Indanan town on Jolo island in the extreme south of the country following a joint operation by the military and local police at 5:30 A.M. as his captors tried to break through a police cordon, Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno said in a news conference. Puno said the other hostage, Italian Eugenio Vagni, was apparently not with the group that held Notter, adding that Vagni's fate remains uncertain. He said negotiations will continue with the help of Ulema or Muslim scholars to free the captive. He said the Abu Sayyaf bandits holding Notter tried to escape when they were spotted by government forces in the area. The police and armed civilians led by Sulu police chief Senior Superintendent Julasirim Kasim gave chase, prompting the bandits to leave behind their Swiss hostage. “The Abu Sayyaf guards were overwhelmed by police forces and armed villagers and they had no choice but to release Notter,” a police official said. Puno said the Philippine government is exerting more pressure on the Abu Sayyaf to release Vagni. Puno said Notter's rescue was the result “of very intense operations by combined forces of the armed forces, the police, and the police auxiliaries of Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan.” Following Notter's release, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) appealed to the Abu Sayyaf to release the Italian hostage unharmed. “We are, of course, very relieved that Andreas will soon be back in the arms of his loved ones,” Alain Aeschlimann, the ICRC's head of operations for South-East Asia and the Pacific, said in a statement. “But we remain very concerned about Eugenio's safety and we call on the abductors to let him go safely, immediately and unconditionally.” The two men, along with a local colleague, were kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf on Jan. 15 as they left a prison on Jolo. The Filipina, Mary Jean Lacaba, was released on April 2. “I am very glad to be with you. I am still a bit confused how it happened,” a haggard looking Notter told reporters as he was formally turned over to Red Cross representatives by Tan and Puno. “I walked out and happy to be alive and safe,” he said, adding that “everything happened very quickly.” He called on the authorities to do everything they could to secure Vagni, whom he said was in pain from his condition. The Malacanang presidential palace hailed the rescue. “This is a major breakthrough that we hope shall eventually lead to the rescue of the last remaining hostage, Eugenio Vagni,” spokesman Cerge Remonde said in a statement. ICRC spokeswoman Anastasia Isyuk said the group feared for Vagni's safety and that there was no information about him. “We're relieved to hear the latest news (about) Andreas and remain concerned about the safety of Eugenio,” Isyuk said. “We are hopeful that he remains safe and unharmed.” Armed forces chief General Alexander Yano declined to give further details of the rescue mission as he said it would compromise efforts to free the remaining hostage. He said “non-violent” efforts were underway to free the Italian, including dialogue headed by five Filipino Muslim clerics who were dispatched to the Abu Sayyaf's stronghold last week to negotiate. Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the Philippine Red Cross chapter, said there had been reports of intense clashes around Indanan late Friday, just a day after the military said it was prepared to rescue the hostages.
