Trudeau 'outraged' at former Calgarian John Ridsdel's beheading by captors in Philippines
AP
MANILA, Philippines — Canadian officials have confirmed that John Ridsdel, 68, was executed by his Philippine captors, the terror group Abu Sayyaf.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau got the news Monday morning during a cabinet retreat at Kananaskis.
“I am outraged by the news that a Canadian citizen, John Ridsdel, held hostage in the Philippines since Sept. 21, 2015, has been killed at the hands of his captors,” Trudeau told media in a hotel ballroom hastily equipped with Canadian flags and a black backdrop for the occasion.
“Canada condemns without reservation the brutality of the hostage takers,” he said.
John Ridsdel has been identified as one of four people abducted in the Philippines on Monday, Sept. 21, 2015.
With three hostages still in captivity, Trudeau said the government will “not comment or release any information to compromise ongoing efforts.” Trudeau and his cabinet are currently on a three-day retreat in Kananaskis.
The Prime Minister has also reportedly been in contact with Ridsdel’s next-of-kin, who are gathered four hours away in Edmonton
The chairman of the Philippine Red Cross confirmed late Monday that police on Jolo Island in the southern Philippines had found the severed head of a caucasian man.
The news came hours after a deadline set by the Islamic extremist group Abu Sayyaf for the payment of ransom money for four hostages, including two Canadians.
Those seized were Canadians Ridsdel and Robert Hall, Hall’s Filipino girlfriend, Marites Flor, and a Norwegian, Kjartan Sekkingstad.
Abu Sayyaf had vowed to behead one of the four, abducted last fall from a marina at an island resort in the south of the country, if their ransom demand was not met by a Monday deadline.
“We have received information that a headless body was found at 8:30 p.m. of a Caucasian man in Jolo City, Jolo Island,” Dick Gordon, chairman of the Philippine Red Cross, said in an interview. “It appears to have been decapitated.”
“A motorcycle driver threw a plastic bag in the road in front of where there were five children playing at 7:30 p.m.. But there was a brown-out (power failure). When the lights went back on it was seen that there was blood on the plastic bag and police were called.”
The Philippine military also confirmed to Reuters that a severed head had been found.
“We are being very careful, we can’t say whose head it was,” army spokesman Major Felimon Tan was reported as having said, adding that tests would be carried out to identify the victim.
After armed gunmen seized the four hostages last fall on Samal Island, near the southern city of Davao, Philippine authorities believe they were transferred about 700 kilometres by sea to Abu Sayyaf’s stronghold on Basilan Island, also in teh south of the country.
Abu Sayyaf — the group’s name is Arabic for Bearer of the Sword — is considered a terrorist organization by Canada, the U.S. and many other countries.
For years aligned with al-Qaida, the group — itself a collection of different factions — has more recently been kidnapping people for ransom in the name of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Abu Sayyaf’s most deadly attack was the 2004 bombing of a Philippine ferry, which killed 116 people. While it has long carried out low-intensity attacks against Philippine security forces, the group is also known for drug-running and other criminal activities.
The Philippines follows a no-ransom policy and has asked that Canada not pay the kidnappers. Canada’s longstanding official policy is not to pay such ransoms, but has likely found low-key ways to do so in Africa and the Middle East.
“I am angry,” the Red Cross’s Gordon said. “We are supposed to be neutral but this has been happening with impunity. The government has to do something to stop this. It has been going on for too long.
“Abu Sayyaf had tried to ask me several months ago to negotiate. I refused to do so but I did speak with all the hostages to confirm that they were still alive.”
In a news release early Monday, the office of Philippine President Benigno Aquino’s spokesman said “maximum efforts” were being exerted by a joint military/police task force to rescue the four hostages. This included “intensified” operations in recent weeks against an estimated 400 Aby Sayyaf members and supporters on the islands of Basilan and Jolo.
Two U.S.-built MG-520 light attack helicopters were seen Monday afternoon hovering near the town of Patikul on Jolo Island in an area where Philippine troops were on the ground, according to the Philippine Star. The Manila newspaper reported that Lt. Gen. Glorioso Miranda, the acting chief of staff of the Philippine armed forces, had arrived on the island earlier in the day “to assess the ongoing military operation but had subsequently left the area.”
Acting on what it said was new information and after a specific request from President Aquino, the Philippine army announced last week that it was launching a bigger joint military/police force to rescue those taken last September.
The Philippine, army, however, has struggled to respond to Abu Sayyaf in the past.
The last successful rescue of Aby Sayyef hostages took place 14 years ago. Garcia Burnham was freed by the Philippine military but during the assault she took a bullet in the leg during the assault and her husband, Martin, was killed in the crossfire.
The Burnhams had been missionaries in Mindanao. They were abducted in 2001 while celebrating their wedding anniversary at an island resort similar to the one where the four hostages were seized last fall. The Burnhams’ captors subsequently took them to Basilan Island.
Earlier this month, Abu Sayyaf posted a video online in which a masked kidnapper demanded 300 million Philippine pesos (more than $8 million) for each hostage and set a deadline of April 25, 16 days later than an earlier deadline.
The first ransom demands after the abduction had sought more than three times as much money.
Abu Sayyaf is believed to be holding a number of other hostages hostages from 8 countries including the Netherlands, Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia.
John Ridsdel has been identified as one of four people abducted in the Philippines on Monday, Sept. 21, 2015.
Ridsdel, a former Calgary Herald reporter and mining consultant.
Ridsdel worked as a reporter with the Calgary Herald in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Ridsdel later joined Petro-Canada as a spokesman and later served in manager positions in Algeria, Myanmar and Pakistan, as well as in Thailand and China.
After leaving Petro-Canada, Ridsdel went sailing — a passion that goes back to his childhood — but returned to the workforce and joined TVI in the Philippines, running a mining operation there until he retired.
