‘Justice is being done at last’
Arab News journalist recalls 18-month ordeal as the Philippines announces the arrest of one of its most-wanted militants
KIDNAP ANGUISH
Atyani managed to escape his jungle prison on Dec. 4, 2013, with the help of outsiders and Al Arabiya News Channel.
“I was lucky to get my freedom back,” he said.
Atyani said he still dreads visiting the southern Philippines. “I have visited the Philippines five times since then. There is always fear at the back of my mind, which is why I try never to leave Manila when I am in the Philippines.”
Writing about his kidnapping ordeal in this newspaper in 2017, Atyani recalled how he was taken hostage.
“It was about 5.30 a.m. when my cameraman, Ramil, knocked on the door of my room. ‘We have to go now,’ he said. ‘Romeo has arrived and is waiting outside the hostel.’ I was already up and preparing for the meeting with one of the ASG leaders on Sulu island. Romeo was the guide and driver set to take me and my team into the jungle to meet this leader.
“The plan was to return within three hours to Jolo, the island’s main city. I had promised Jolo’s mayor I would attend the Philippine Independence Day ceremony. This was on June 12, 2012.
“My Filipino coordinator said that he was tied up with work in Manila, but had arranged all the interviews and made all the arrangements for my visit to Zamboanga City and Sulu island, including the interview with the ASG leader. He kept saying: ‘My brother, you will be in good hands.’ “The night before I was kidnapped, he sent me a text saying the same thing. Something inside me warned me of a lurking threat, but I ignored the feeling. My coordinator arranged our accommodation at Sulu Students Hostel and insisted that I refuse to stay with the governor of the island or with the mayor of Jolo. ‘They should not know about our plans to meet with the ASG leader,’ he said.
“As Romeo drove toward the jungle, I had a feeling I would not return soon. The car crashed three times during the journey; the third time, Romeo left the car on the road and told us to continue on foot. This added to my feeling that something was not right; you cannot just leave the car on the road and continue with your journey unless it is serious.
“The journalist in me ignored every sign of threat. ‘You should do this scoop, meet the ASG leader in the jungle, and get a first-hand account of the conflict in Mindanao,’ I thought to myself. I had interviewed all the other parties involved in the conflict of Mindanao by then.
“We were deep inside the Patikol area, the ASG stronghold. Armed men from every side of the jungle appeared with guns and munitions. Abu Rami, an ASG leader who was later ambushed and killed by the Philippine army, gave money to Romeo, who left us with our kidnappers.
“I spent 18 months in captivity, in the heart of the Sulu jungle, living among ignorant people, to say the least.
“When Sheikh Mohammed Hussein, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, appealed to my kidnappers to release me, they had hardly heard of Jerusalem. One of them asked me about it, to which I said: ‘Have you heard about Al-Aqsa Mosque?’ He said: ‘Yes, is that in Spain?’”