Kidnapped on vacation, held hostage for 140 days: “They threatened to decapitate us”

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It was a tough time. Marc Wallert, then 26 years old, worked as a management consultant. “A job that has a lot to do with numbers and analysis. And one where you’re constantly on the move,” he says in an interview with FOCUS online.

Wallert wanted to relax and spend time with his family again. So he flew to Malaysia with his parents – for diving on the island of Sipadan. That was in April 2000.

Most people probably don’t expect to be kidnapped while on vacation. Neither does Wallert. But that’s exactly what happened to him and his parents on Easter Sunday.

“It was evening, we sat on the shore and watched the sunset,” he says. “Suddenly, out of nowhere, armed men came towards us, forced us to get into a speedboat and drove with us for 20 hours through the open sea.”

Terror group abducted Wallert and his parents

The men’s destination: the island of Jolo, a small island in the Sulu Sea. Jolo is located in the south of the Philippines and is considered a problem region. Government-backed security forces have been battling the Islamist terrorist group Abu Sayyaf for many years.

It was founded in the 1990s with money from al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. It was also members of the Abu Sayyaf who kidnapped Wallert and his family, along with 18 other vacationers. Among those abducted were Germans, French, Malaysians, Finns, South Africans and Filipinos.

When the native of Göttingen talks about the day of the kidnapping today, it sounds matter-of-fact and calm. Wallert still knows exactly how he felt back then, at the age of 26, in a terrorist group’s speedboat.

“We were paralyzed, in shock,” he says. The relaxed dream vacation had turned into a nightmare journey, from one second to the next. Wallert often wondered whether everything would have been different if he had made a different decision shortly beforehand.

After 20 hours, Wallert and his parents arrived on Jolo

“Minutes before the terrorists arrived, a night dive started,” he says. “But I preferred to enjoy the sunset with my parents. Later I often thought to myself: If only we had dived with them!”

Today Wallert, 49 years old and father of three children, sees things with different eyes. It is important to accept your fate, he emphasizes. “But that doesn’t mean accepting it or giving up.”

After a 20-hour boat ride, Wallert and his parents arrived on Jolo. A ten-hour hike through the jungle followed, until the group finally reached a clearing. Some wore flip-flops, others were barefoot.

The conditions under which the abductees had to live were appalling. “There was no running water, no electricity, sometimes no roof over your head. And we don’t even need to talk about hygiene,” recalls Wallert.

“They threatened us with beheading”

Venomous animals lurked everywhere – and, of course, armed kidnappers. It is true that he, his parents and the other abductees were not chained or tortured by the members of the Abu Sayyaf. “We still couldn’t run away,” says Wallert.

The Islamists had led them into a world of war and violence. Just a week after they arrived at the first camp, the Philippine Army attempted to free the hostages. There was an exchange of gunfire.

“We fled in a hail of bullets. During our imprisonment we were housed in a total of seven camps,” says Wallert. And tells of the fear that went around in his group. The fear of being killed.

“This is exactly what happened to prisoners on another island. We had heard about it. The terrorists also threatened us with beheading,” says the 49-year-old. Abu Sayyaf’s ruthlessness was also demonstrated in the case of a kidnapped German sailor in 2017. The terrorists killed him after a ransom period had expired.

When Wallert and his family were in the hands of the militia, they not only threatened the vacationers with death. The Abu Sayyaf also humiliated them. Wallert’s mother, for example, suffered increasingly from being held hostage. Eventually she started hallucinating and passed out.

Lebanese hostage Marie Boarbes, experienced in first aid, revived her with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, she told journalists of “Figaro”. Boarbes also described the reaction of the kidnappers: “The others grinned derisively – they are happy when we cry.”

The press kept coming to visit: “Almost like hostage tourism”

For Wallert, it was the thought of his brother that gave him strength. He had not accompanied him and his parents, had stayed in Gottingen. Every day Wallert imagined himself coming home and telling him about his experiences in the jungle. “With a nice cold beer in hand,” he says.

The case of the kidnapped tourist group was unique. Also because the whole world could follow him in front of the cameras. The Abu Sayyaf sent journalists to speak with the hostages.

Not only German media, for example the “Spiegel”, were there. The international press also spoke to the prisoners. “It was a kind of hostage tourism,” says Wallert today.

He believes the terrorist group deliberately brought in journalists to do something called “PR.” It was contact with the outside world, but not a ticket to freedom. “The media representatives were allowed to leave, we had to stay. That felt unfair,” says the family man.

“However, they brought me a pen and pad, and my notes turned into a book.” Wallert wrote everything down. What he was feeling, how he was doing, what he was observing. Some days it was 40 pages.

The day of release

And he had plenty of time. Only on September 9, 2000, after 140 days, was the young man able to turn his back on the jungle and his kidnappers. According to Wallert, he was one of the last four hostages to be released.

His mother, mentally and physically in poor condition, and his father were able to leave the detention center weeks before him. “Libya paid ransom to let us go,” he says.

To this day Wallert does not know exactly why the Abu Sayyaf kidnapped him and the other tourists. Maybe they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. “Some say it was about fishing rights, others say it was about money,” he says.

The day of his release was a “rollercoaster ride of emotions” for him, as the father of the family says. Breakfast, long exchanges of fire and suddenly freedom. The now 27-year-old was able to leave the hostage camp by helicopter.

Wallert just kept going – a mistake

When he had left the camp behind and set foot on the ground of civilization for the first time, Wallert found banal things earth-shattering. “I went to the restroom and couldn’t believe my luck that there was a door to lock and soap to wash my hands,” he says.

His brother welcomed him and Wallert was finally able to do what he had always imagined in the jungle: tell him about everything while drinking a beer. It was warm, but the best beer of his life.

The 49-year-old thinks back to this moment fondly to this day. He spoke to friends, family members, but also to a trauma therapist about his experiences as an Abu Sayyaf hostage.

However, Wallert’s fascination with the everyday did not last long. He returned to his old job as a management consultant and eventually switched to the auto industry. Back to the hard numbers, analysis, tables.

A mistake, Wallert thinks today. “It all happened too quickly. I got burned out after five years and asked myself: How could I survive being held hostage but break at my job?”

Wallert realized that he should have changed his life. Numbers, hard analyzes – that wasn’t what he wanted to do full-time. He has always preferred to work with people, in the social field.

Every crisis an opportunity? “It’s hurtful to say that”

“You have to get up after a trauma like that. But I think it’s wrong to simply ‘set the crown and move on’, as it is so often said. You should learn something from crises and recognize opportunities, take new directions,” he says.

Today the 49-year-old is an author, speaker and resilience expert. He gives lectures. He reads from his book. And tries to encourage others with his story. What Wallert says seems sincere, even if some things sound harsh.

“Not every crisis is an opportunity,” he says in a strong voice on the phone. “It would be blatant and hurtful to say such a thing. But there are often opportunities that are not immediately apparent. I help people discover them.”