Canada will not pay ransoms for the release of its citizens held hostage overseas, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday after the gruesome killing of a Canadian in the Philippines.
Canadians John Ridsdel (R) and Robert Hall. Canada's PM Justin Trudeau
confirmed that the decapitated head of a Caucasian male recovered on Apr
25 in the southern Philippines belongs to Ridsdel, who was taken
hostage by Abu Sayyaf militants in Sep 2015. (Militant Video via AP
Video)
OTTAWA: Canada will not pay ransoms for the release of its
citizens held hostage overseas, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on
Tuesday (Apr 26) after the gruesome killing of a Canadian in the
Philippines.
"Canada does not and will not pay ransom to terrorists,
directly or indirectly," Trudeau said, vowing instead to hunt down and
prosecute hostage-takers.
His comments come after Trudeau delivered the grim news on
Monday that Canadian John Ridsdel had been killed by his captors - the
Abu Sayyaf militant group - in the Philippines. Efforts, however, were
continuing to try to secure the release of three others, including
another Canadian national, he said.
In decrying ransom payouts, Trudeau explained that they
helped to support criminal or terrorist activities, and "endangered the
lives of every single one of the millions of Canadians who live, work
and travel around the globe" as they could become targets for abduction.
Trudeau said that he and British Prime Minister David Cameron agreed
in a telephone conversation earlier to press allies on the issue.
"We agreed that it is something that we are going to make
sure that we do bring up with our friends and allies around the world as
we come to grips with the fact that the world is a dangerous place," he
said.
"We need to make sure that terrorists understand that they
cannot continue to fund their crimes and their violence from taking
innocents hostage," he added.
Ridsdel, fellow Canadian tourist Robert Hall, Hall's
girlfriend Filipina Marites Flor, and Norwegian resort manager Kjartan
Sekkingstad were kidnapped seven months ago from yachts at a marina near
the major city of Davao, more than 500 kilometres from Jolo.
In a recent video, Ridsdel, a retiree in his late 60s, said
his captors would kill him on Apr 25 if a ransom of US$6.4 million was
not paid.
Hours after the deadline passed, police in the Philippines
said two people on a motorbike dropped a head in a plastic bag near city
hall on Jolo, a mostly lawless island around 1,000 kilometers south of
Manila that is one of the Abu Sayyaf group's main strongholds.
- AFP/de
Post a Comment