JOLO, Sulu - Government officials denied yesterday claims by the Abu Sayyaf that two foreign hostages died during a pre-dawn clash between the military and the Muslim extremists.
"The hostages are all safe. They are all alive, that is what is important," said Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan.
Military officials also said they had no knowledge of any hostage fatalities in Sulu, and said the claim may have been part of Abu Sayyaf propaganda.
The clash apparently occurred when the hostages were being transferred to another location, officials said.
Troops seized the bamboo hut where the hostages had been held but found no one inside. No bloodstains were evident inside the hut, and medicines brought by a government doctor on Monday were left behind, police said.
Government forces said the rebels have abandoned the jungle camp with their captives.
Commander Robot, an Abu Sayyaf leader, claimed in a telephone interview with the local ABS-CBN radio network that a white foreign man had been accidentally shot in the fighting and a white foreign woman had died of a heart attack.
He apologized to their families and said it was not the rebels' doing.
Another rebel leader, Abu Escobar, later repeated the claim in a call to another radio station and said the rebels would proceed with a previous threat to behead two foreign hostages if the military does not pull back from the rebels' hideout.
Col. Ernesto de Guzman, chief of staff of the AFP Southern Command, said the troops would stay put.
"We will not move in and we will not move out," he said.
He said the overnight fighting was very far from where the hostages are believed held.
The 21 hostages were kidnapped April 23 from a Malaysian diving resort and brought to a bamboo hut in the hills of Talipao in Sulu, about one hour away by boat.
The hostages have pleaded to the government to halt military operations in the area.
In announcing their threat Tuesday to behead two of the foreign tourists, Escobar said the troops had moved so close to the rebel hideout that the kidnappers could see them.
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Nur Misuari, the government's hostage negotiator, said the rebels have refused to begin formal talks unless the troops are moved from the area. He also urged a halt to the military operations.
"I want only peaceful means because I believe this is more effective in getting them released safely than military means," said Misuari, former chairman of the separatist Moro National Liberation Front which signed a peace agreement with the government in September 1996..
Misuari said he had conflicting reports that the two hostages were dead or merely injured.
"One is slightly injured and the other is a little serious," he told radio station dzMM. "There is no confirmation if there were any dead."
Several foreign countries have offered to help negotiate, but the Philippine government said yesterday it alone would handle the situation.
"We've asked them to please give us the opportunity to handle the problem," Press Secretary Ricardo Puno said. If needed, he said "we will get their advice and we will get whatever assistance they can give us. But the ball is in our court at this time."
Puno also said that the Office of the Press Secretary and the AFP have put up an information center against the Abu Sayyaf's propaganda.
Lebanon, meanwhile, asked the Philippine government not to endanger the lives of the foreign hostages, including a Lebanese woman, the Lebanese foreign ministry said.
The head of the ministry's political department, Naji Abu Assi, conveyed the plea to Philippine Ambassador Fortunato Oblena.
France's ambassador to Lebanon Raymond Baaklini has also been asked to assist, the official said. France was sending a special envoy to the Philippines.
The Abu Sayyaf is the smaller of two groups fighting for a separate Islamic state in Mindanao, home of the country's Muslim minority.
The Jolo hostages include tourists from Germany, France, South Africa, Finland and Lebanon as well as resort workers from the Philippines and Malaysia.
Several have written letters to their embassies asking them to pressure the Philippine government to speed up negotiations and remove the troops to prevent further clashes and let the kidnappers obtain food.
Several journalists who accompanied a doctor to the simple bamboo hut on Monday were able to interview the hostages, who complained of food shortage, fever and infections. The doctor later reported that most of the hostages appeared exhausted and dehydrated. She said she told the rebels that two captives need to be hospitalized, but the rebels did not immediately agree. -- With Rey Arquiza, Marichu Villanueva, wire reports