The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday it had not received any ransom demands from Abu Sayyaf militants holding two European staff in the Philippines. But a Red Cross statement said its policy was not to pay for the release of its aid workers. A Philippines military report seen by reporters in Manila on Tuesday said the Abu Sayyaf group that kidnapped three ICRC workers on Jolo on Jan. 15 had demanded a $5 million ransom. The rebels had threatened to behead one of the hostages. One of them, Filipina Mary Jean Lacaba, was freed in early April but Swiss national Andreas Notter and Italian Eugenio Vagni are still being held. “I would like to make it very clear that since the very beginning of the hostage crisis the ICRC has never received any such demands,” said Alain Aeschlimann, head of ICRC operations for East Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
