Abducted Taiwan woman back home from Philippines
Print Edition
A TAIWANESE tourist whose husband was killed by gunmen in a kidnapping at a Malaysian island resort returned to Taiwan yesterday after she was rescued in the southern Philippines.
Television footage showed Chang An-wei, 58, dressed in a loose T-shirt and wearing sunglasses, walking to a minibus parked at an airport near Taipei after she arrived in the early afternoon, waving briefly to the media and giving a thumbs-up sign.
Chang was found by Philippine marines at a village near Talipao, a town on the remote Philippine island of Jolo where Abu Sayyaf Islamic militants are known to operate, and was taken to a military hospital for a medical check-up on Friday.
“I think I just want to say I deeply appreciate the Philippine military for giving me such a big help and assistance to rescue me. Thank you very much,” Chang said in English in a pre-recorded message aired by several Taiwanese news channels yesterday.
Chang and her husband Hsu Li-min were holidaying on Pom Pom island in Sabah state, which is near the Sulu island group that includes Jolo, when gunmen attacked on November 15, kidnapping her and killing her husband, according to Taiwanese officials and media.
Officials in Taiwan said that Hsu’s body was cremated in Malaysia and that his family brought back his ashes to Taiwan last month. Taiwanese media said Chang’s family allegedly paid the kidnappers around US$300,000 in ransom to secure her release.
“She was not abused ... the kidnappers wanted money, not her life,” Chang’s brother Chang Ta-kung told reporters. He declined to disclose any detail relating to the negotiations for her release.
Philippine authorities said the identities of Chang’s kidnappers were unknown, though Abu Sayyaf gunmen are known to carry out kidnappings in the area.
A Jordanian television reporter, Bakr Atyani, walked free from a Jolo jungle earlier this month, 18 months after he was abducted by the militants. Abu Sayyaf gunmen are believed still to hold a number of hostages, including two European birdwatchers and a Japanese treasure hunter.
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