Italian Red Cross hostage freed in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines – Al-Qaida-linked militants freed an Italian Red Cross worker Sunday from six months of jungle captivity in the southern Philippines, officials said. The 62-year old said he was treated well but constantly feared being beheaded.

Eugenio Vagni appeared to be in good health but tired as Abu Sayyaf gunmen handed him over to a provincial vice governor shortly after midnight in jungle near Maimbung township on southern Jolo Island, officials said.

Vagni embraced military officers at a Jolo military camp, muttering “Thank you” repeatedly, said marine Col. Eugenio Clemen.

In Vatican City, Pope Benedict XVI felt relieved that the abduction was over and took Vagni’s release as a “sign of hope and of faith,” Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi was quoted as saying by the Italian news agency ANSA.

Vagni said he was treated well by his Abu Sayyaf captors, who called him “Apo,” a local term of respect for the elderly. He lost about 44 pounds and was fed mostly rice and fish. The militants helped treat his cholera and carried his backpack when he got tired, but that did not ease his constant fear of being beheaded.

Vagni told ABS-CBN network that he often imagined seeing “my head in a big basket.”
TV footage showed Vagni, who grown a beard, smiling and waving to well-wishers. “I love them all,” Vagni said.

“I’m very elated that the ordeal is over for Vagni,” said Sen. Richard Gordon, who heads the Philippine National Red Cross. “It’s been six months of constant fear of gunbattles, of being ordered around, of being held away from his wife and children.”

Vagni’s brother, Francesco, told reporters in Italy that “there were moments that I believed he would never come back.” The two brothers spoke by phone, ANSA reported.

The aid worker, who suffers from hypertension and a hernia, was kidnapped along with two Red Cross colleagues after inspecting a Jolo jail water project Jan. 15.

The Swiss and the Filipino hostages had been freed earlier, but the Abu Sayyaf held on to Vagni for months, entering into on-and-off negotiations for his release while government troops tried to rescue him.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said in an interview with Italian state TV that no ransom had been paid for Vagni’s release. There has been speculation that a large ransom was paid to the kidnappers.

Frattini expressed gratitude that no government attacks were necessary to free the hostage.

– Associated Press writers Oliver Teves from Manila, Philippines, and Frances d’Emilio from Rome contributed to this report.