RUSSIA: UNITED NATIONS REFUGEE AGENCY APPEALS FOR RELEASE OF FRENCH STAFF MEMBER KIDNAPPED IN SOUTHERN RUSSIA

Record ID: 275069

  • Title: RUSSIA: UNITED NATIONS REFUGEE AGENCY APPEALS FOR RELEASE OF FRENCH STAFF MEMBER KIDNAPPED IN SOUTHERN RUSSIA
  • Date: 31st January 1998
  • Summary: VLADIKAVKAZ, RUSSIA (JANUARY 31) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. LVOF VLADIKAVKAZ. 0.08 2. SV INVESTIGATION COMMISSION IN SESSION. 0.15 3. CU VINCENT COCHETEL'S PHOTOGRAPH 0.28 4. SV HEAD OF COMMISSION, NODAR GOGLOYEV, CHAIRING THE SESSION. 0.36 5. SLV HOTEL WHERE THE UNHCR OFFICE IS LOCATED 0.44 6. SV/SLV SECURITY AND UNHCR CARS PARKE
  • Embargoed: 15th February 1998 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: VLADIKAVKAZ, RUSSIA
  • City:
  • Country: Russia
  • Reuters ID: LVABYC6ELMKWSTTTFCX5S1LQX00U
  • Story Text: The United Nations refugee agency has appealed for the immediate release of a French staff member kidnapped from his home in southern Russia by three masked gunmen.

    Vincent Cochetel, head of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Vladikavkaz, capital of North Ossetia, was kidnapped on Wednesday (January 28) night as he returned to his apartment with his driver after a dinner with local officials.

    The motives were unknown and no group had claimed responsibility or made demands, although the gunmen were said to have searched Cochetel's apartment for valuables.

    Police launched an investigation once the driver, left tied up in the apartment, notified them after freeing himself from ropes.

    A UNHCR senior policy advisor in the region Victor Andreyev said that the UNHCR was taking the matter very seriously.

    The three attackers in masks were reported to have entered the house, threatened Cochetel with guns and forced him to go with them.

    They also seized a white four-wheel drive car which police later found abandoned in the town.

    Interior ministry officials believe he is alive and that he was taken hostage for a ransom, they also predict that in about two weeks the conditions for his release will be announced.They usually need this time so settle somewhere, look around and establish contact, officials said.

    Hostage-taking has become rife in the region, which is close to Russia's breakaway Chechnya republic, since the last Russian troops withdrew from Chechnya last year, after a disastrous 21-month battle with Chechen separatists.

    Vladikavkaz is 50 km (30 miles) from the Chechen capital, Grozny.

    A string of foreign workers have fallen victim to hostage-takers, who normally demand huge ransoms.Four French aid workers kidnapped last year were freed in November after more than three months in captivity.


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