Christian Dono
Agence France Presse
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines: Kidnapped Irish priest Michael Sinnott emerged from a month in the jungles of the south Philippines 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 the southern city of Zamboanga 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.”
His captors, who Sinnott said claimed to be from a local Muslim tribe, had demanded a $2 million ransom for his freedom.
But the Society of Saint Columban order to which Sinnott belongs, Philippine authorities and the Irish government said no ransom was paid.
“To do so would only have jeopardized 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.
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, spending the first 10 days trapped in swampland and then forced to hike into mountains.
He said he had been roughed up when first abducted, briefly having his hands tied together and a bag put over his head.
But Sinnott said that his captors then treated him well.
“They were very very kind to me. I cannot say anything [bad] about them,” he told a nationally televised press conference in Manila after meeting Arroyo.
Southern Philippine military commander Major General Ben Dolorfino said the nation’s main 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 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, but it is close to restarting peace talks with the government.
Manila had earlier alleged MILF commanders were involved in the kidnapping.
But the MILF had always maintained its innocence and said it secured Sinnott’s release from the kidnappers to show it wanted to pursue peace talks.
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