GERMAN SAILOR KIDNAPPED AGAIN‚ THIS TIME BY ABU SAY YAF
SANDAKAN: Abu Sayyaf militants have claimed responsibility for kidnapping a German sailor and killing his girlfriend while the couple were “sailing off Malaysian waters”.
Philippine regional military spokesman Major Filemon Tan confirmed yesterday that Abu Sayyaf spokesman Muamar Askali made the claim that the militants had abducted a man identified as Jurgen Kantner.
Associated Press reported Tan as saying the group also claimed to have shot dead his companion and that the “couple were cruising off neighbouring Malaysia” when gunmen stormed their yacht.
The report did not mention when exactly the kidnapping took place, but stated that the Philippine military was verifying the claim.
However, Philippine paper The Inquirer yesterday reported that the victim, aged 70, was taken at gunpoint in Tanjung Pisut in Tawi-Tawi Island.
It said the military had confirmed the recovery of a woman’s body inside an abandoned yacht in Sulu.
The body was discovered by a civilian around 6am on Sunday near Laparan Island in Pangutaran, Sulu.
It was alleged that a yacht was spotted sailing in waters off Tambisan, Lahad Datu, last week, raising concerns that it could be the same boat that was involved in the kidnapping.
However, a source from the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) said the agency was not aware of any yacht in transit in waters off Sabah’s east coast.
“There was no movement of a yacht from Kudat eastbound. We are checking with Tawau and Sandakan Yacht Club for verification. So far, negative.”
On Nov 5, two Indonesians were kidnapped by gunmen when they stormed two fishing boats in waters off Kinabatangan between 11am and 11.45am.
The first incident took place when a 52-year-old skipper and two crew members were fishing in Kertam waters 15 nautical miles from the Kinabatangan river.
The gunmen took the skipper and fled towards international waters, where the gunmen grabbed the skipper of another fishing boat about three nautical miles away.
KUALA LUMPUR: Jurgen Kantner, who is now in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf group, was held captive when Somali pirates raided his yacht and abducted him and his wife in June 2008.
It was reported that Kantner and his wife, Sabine Merz, were kidnapped as they were steering through Somali waters in their yacht, Rockall.
Armed pirates who captured them took them ashore to a mountain hideout and the couple were only released about two months later after a ransom was believed to have been paid.
Kantner later recounted his experience to a German online portal, The Local, describing it as the worst experience of his life.
“It was my worst experience ever. It was really painful and they were intimidating us the whole time.
“One day, I said to them that I hoped a plane would bomb us all to bits, so that we all die together,” he was quoted as saying after being released in August the same year.
Kantner later baffled locals when he returned to Somalia to retrieve his beloved sailboat, prompting residents to call him “the mad German sailor”.
“My boat is my life and I don’t want to lose her, nothing more. I don’t care about pirates and governments.
“They think that I’m insane. They call me ‘the crazy white guy’ or ‘the mad German sailor’ but they don’t know how important my boat is to me.
“I know it’s dangerous sailing off into Somali waters and I have no private security guarding me, but I pray to God that pirates won’t get me again. It’s a little bit like suicide,” Kantner was later quoted as saying in an AFP report.
“I have no friends back home because I lost contact with all of them by living on my boat for 32 years.
“This is my life and it’s wonderful. I have all my things on my boat and I travel to many places in the world. Sailing is how I want to live and die,” he had said then.
In the AFP interview, Kantner had expressed hope of reaching his next destination: Malaysia.
“If I get there safely, my wife and I will take a week-long holiday, just resting.
“And, I really hope the pirates don’t catch me because this time, no one will pay and everybody will tell the pirates: ‘Keep him’.”