By Hader Glang
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
One of two German hostages held by Abu Sayyaf militants in the southern Philippines has made a further plea for his release two days ahead of a ransom deadline.
In an interview on the RMN radio station Wednesday, Dr Stefan Viktor Okonek begged authorities to release him and his wife Henrike Dielen.
"I’m sitting here in a hole,” Okonek told the interviewer. “They digged a hole, three meters by 1.5m. They told me it is my grave. They pushed me inside the hole and I’m sitting with 10 men around me. Please do everything to get us out of here."
Okonek, 74, and Dielen, 55, were seized on their yacht off the coast of the Philippines’ southern Palawan island in April.
Abu Sayyaf are demanding a 250 million Philippine peso ($5.5 million) ransom to free the couple as well as calling for Germany to stop supporting the campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.
The Philippine group is linked to al-Qaeda and in July pledged allegiance to ISIL. It has said it will behead the hostages at 15.00 local time (10.00 Turkish time) Friday. A previous October 10 deadline was postponed the day before it expired.
Abu Sayyaf also posted photographs on social media showing Okonek sitting in the middle of a hole with four masked men pointing guns at him. A black flag with white Arabic script was in the background.
Okonek told the radio station the kidnappers’ demands “are repeated very often, the Abu Sayyaf wish to get money and wish the government to withdraw troops."
Asked by the interviewer if he knew anything about negotiations, Okonek said the Philippine government had not contacted Abu Sayyaf.
"I have not heard anyone who tries to get us out here," he said.
Okonek added that he had not seen his wife for two days as they are being held separately.
Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Rami told the station that the hostages had been separated so the remaining prisoner would not witness Friday’s killing.
He added: "We don't want the politicians to negotiate with us because they're all liars. Now, if they want to talk with us, we want the department of foreign affairs because this hostage is a foreigner.”
He confirmed that Abu Sayyaf had not heard from the government.
The German Foreign Ministry has said: “Threats are not an appropriate way to influence our policy in Syria and Iraq.”
The Philippine government has sent more than 1,000 extra troops to Sulu province, where Abu Sayyaf is believed to be holding a total of 15 hostages, and has deployed canine search teams.
Since 1991, Abu Sayyaf has carried out bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and extortions in a fight for an independent Islamic province in the southern Philippines.
It is notorious for beheading victims on the failure to pay ransoms.
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