Author Topic: Journalists Christopher Johnson and Urban Hamid (Read 483 times)

MikeLigalig.com · « **on:** August 19, 2025, 09:50:08 AM »

ASG try to abduct foreign journalists (news archive February 2002)
ZAMBOANGA -- Abu Sayyaf rebels attempted to abduct two foreign freelance journalists covering joint US-Philippine military training exercises in the southern Philippines, the military said yesterday.

The two were Canadian Christopher Johnson and Urban Hamid, said to be a French national of Egyptian descent, military officials said.

The pair, who arrived here last week, were preparing to board a ferry bound for nearby Basilan island on Friday when two men posing as army soldiers approached them and said they had been sent to assist the reporters.

The journalists became suspicious and contacted the military, who told them to return immediately to their hotel in Zamboanga city.

"The two journalists declined (the invitation of the suspects) after sensing danger because the men failed to show their identification cards," said Lieutenant Colonel Fredesvindo Covarrubias, commander of the southern command's civil relations group.

"Intelligence reports indicated that the men are Abu Sayyaf members trying to lure the (journalists)," said Captain Harold Cabunoc, commander of the army scout ranger unit in Basilan.

"We did not send anybody to fetch foreign journalists," he said.

The military last week warned foreign journalists against venturing to Basilan saying they faced the threat of being kidnapped by the Muslim Abu Sayyaf group, holding a US Christian missionary couple and a Filipina hostage. Dozens of foreign reporters have been flocking to this southern Philippine port city to cover the six-month US-Philippine exercises which began last month. The exercises are aimed at helping the Philippines crush the Abu Sayyaf, a small group of Islamic militants linked to the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden, the alleged terrorist mastermind of the September 11 attacks in the US.

Officials said American special forces "advisers" would be joining Filipino soldiers in patrols against the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan. The US soldiers would be armed and could fire back if attacked.

In 2000, the Abu Sayyaf snatched several foreign journalists who were covering a hostage crisis involving dozens of foreign tourists in nearby Jolo island. Presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said Sunday the threat against journalists was real and the military warning was not meant to scare reporters. He said that other Muslim armed groups operating in the area could also try to "take foreigners hostages."

"Even in Pakistan, that has become a big problem because a Wall Street reporter has been abducted," Tiglao said, referring to US national Daniel Pearl, who vanished last month while exploring the underworld of Islamic militants in Pakistan's volatile southern city of Karachi.*AFP

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MikeLigalig.com

Author Topic: Journalists Christopher Johnson and Urban Hamid (Read 483 times)

MikeLigalig.com

Journalists Christopher Johnson and Urban Hamid