
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, July 2, 1990                   TAG: 9007020173
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/8   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: MANILA, PHILIPPINES                                LENGTH: Short

OFFICIAL RULES OUT RESCUE OF VOLUNTEER

A provincial governor today ruled out military operations to rescue a U.S. Peace Corps worker kidnapped by Communist rebels, and said he would form a committee to negotiate for the volunteer's release.

Timothy Swanson, 26, of Cheyenne, Wyo., was kidnapped June 13 from his home in the mountain village of Patag by four to eight New People's Army guerrillas.

The U.S. Embassy said it learned of the abduction only Saturday because the rebels had warned Swanson's Filipino wife, a teacher at a rural school, not to report the incident. She did so only after U.S. officials last week ordered the 261 Peace Corps volunteers in the Philippines to leave, saying intelligence reports indicated rebels might try to kill or kidnap them.

Daniel Lacson, governor of Negros Occidental province, told reporters he conferred today with U.S. officials who gave him blanket authority to win Swanson's release.

"No military operation unless we exhaust political means," Lacson said. "Given enough time to assess everything, we will put up a committee to negotiate for the release of Swanson." Lacson said the "bottom line is to get Swanson alive."

- Associated Press

by CNB