HOSTAGE TREATED ‘LIKE A SLAVE.’
Abu Sayyaf captors killed two Canadians
INDANAN, Philippines • A Norwegian man freed by militants after a year of jungle captivity in the southern Philippines described the ordeal Sunday as “devastating,” carrying a backpack with a bullet hole as a reminder of a near-death experience that included the beheadings of the two Canadians kidnapped with him.
Kjartan Sekkingstad was freed by his Abu Sayyaf captors on Saturday to rebels from the larger Moro National Liberation Front, which has signed a peace deal with the Philippine government and helped negotiate his release. On Sunday, he was handed over to Philippine authorities, along with three Indonesian fishermen freed separately by the Abu Sayyaf.
Sekkingstad said he survived more than a dozen clashes between Philippine forces and his captors in the lush jungles of Sulu province.
In one intense battle, in which the forces fired from assault helicopters and from the ground, he said he felt a thud in his back and thought he was hit by gunfire. After the fighting eased, he discovered that he wasn’t hit, and that his green army-style backpack had been pierced by the gunfire instead.
On Sunday, the heavily bearded Sekkingstad, clad in a rebel camouflage uniform and muddy combat boots, was asked how he would describe his horrific experience.
“Devastating, devastating,” he said, still clutching the backpack.
“I am very happy to be alive and free,” he said. “It’s a beautiful feeling.”
It was not immediately clear whether Sekkingstad had been ransomed off. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte suggested at a news conference last month that 50 million pesos ($1 million) had been paid to the militants. The military said Saturday that relentless assaults forced the extremists to release the hostage.
In Norway, Prime Minister Erna Solberg said no ransom was paid.
Sekkingstad was kidnapped from a yacht club he helped manage on southern Samal Island on Sept. 21, 2015, along with Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall and Hall’s Filipino girlfriend, Marites Flor, sparking a massive land and sea search by Philippine forces.
Ridsdel was beheaded in April and Hall was decapitated in June after ransom deadlines lapsed. When Flor was freed in June, she recounted in horror how the militants rejoiced while watching the beheadings.
Sekkingstad said he and his fellow captives were kept in the dark on what was happening around them. At one point, he said, their heavily armed captors numbered more than 300.
“We were treated like slaves,” he said.