Their release marked the end of an almost two-month-long hostage saga involving 14 Indonesian sailors who were abducted in Malaysian waters, with Indonesian officials reiterating a commitment to continue safeguarding the waters through joint patrols with Malaysian and Philippine armed forces.
The four Indonesian sailors — who were taken hostage on their way back to Indonesia after delivering coal on the tugboat Henry pulling the barge Christy to the Philippines on April 15 — were released on Wednesday and handed over to Indonesian authorities the following day, before enduring a long trip by sea and air from Tarakan to Jakarta.
They arrived on Friday morning, underwent medical checkups and participated in a ceremony during which they were handed over to their families at the Foreign Ministry’s compound later in the afternoon. Their release followed the 10 other Indonesian hostages who were let go on May 1, after being abducted from the tugboat Brahma 12 and the barge Anand 12 in late March.
Just like for the previous release, details of the event and the efforts leading to it were kept secret. Government officials again attributed the release to thorough negotiations and constant communications between the Indonesian Foreign Ministry and military with their Filipino counterparts.
“Now that we have handed over the hostages to their families, efforts to address the piracy of the tugboat Henry and the barge Christie by the Abu Sayyaf group have now concluded,” Foreign Ministry Retno LP Marsudi said during the ceremony.
“We want to thank the many parties involved in the process to release the hostages, especially the Indonesian Army. I also contacted the Philippines’ Foreign Ministry after the hostages landed this afternoon to convey our gratitude for the Philippines’ support throughout this time.”
Unlike the first group of hostages, the newly released sailors said they had been under constant psychological threat. The two groups of hostages were apparently being kept by different factions of the militant group.
The four Indonesians, identified as M. Ariyanto Misnan from Bekasi, West Java, Loren M. Petrus from West Papua, Dede Irfan Hilmi from Ciamis, West Java, and Samsir from South Sulawesi, all said that they were not regularly or sufficiently fed and were forced to see videos of beheaded hostages on a daily basis as threats. There were also times when they were hit and kicked by their abductors.
However, unlike the first release, about which the details of whether there had been a ransom paid to the militant group were not disclosed to the public, the four sailors and their employers indicated that there had been no money paid to the abductors this time around.
Riswandi Syah, president director of shipping company Global Trans Energy International, which employs the four sailors, reiterated that the company did not pay any ransom to the abductors and had never been contacted by members of Abu Sayyaf asking for money.
The four Indonesians were part of a 10-strong group of tugboat crewmen. Five other crew members evaded being kidnapped and have since returned home, while another crew member, Lambas Simanulangkit from South Kalimantan, was shot and subsequently hospitalized in Tawau, Sabah state, Malaysia. He was released from the hospital and returned home early on Tuesday.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arrmanatha Nasir said Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines would continue with the maritime security approach agreed to during a meeting between the countries’ foreign ministers and army chiefs on May 5 in Yogyakarta, a meeting that included talks about conducting joint patrols.
“Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia will continue to carry out our plan for joint patrols in the waters. The waters are strategic for trade and if such incidents continue they will cause losses to all of us,” he said. – The Jakarta Post