MALI: 14 RELEASED HOSTAGES PREPARE TO RETURN TO GERMANY AFTER BEING HELD BY ALGERIAN MILITANTS

Record ID: 646116

  • Title: MALI: 14 RELEASED HOSTAGES PREPARE TO RETURN TO GERMANY AFTER BEING HELD BY ALGERIAN MILITANTS
  • Date: 19th August 2003
  • Summary: (W4) BAMAKO, MALI (AUGUST 19, 2003) (REUTERS) WIDE OF AIRPORT AND OF GERMAN AEROPLANE ON TARMAC VARIOUS, ENGINEERS WORKING ON AEROPLANE (2 SHOTS) VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS STANDING ON RUNWAY (2 SHOTS) VARIOUS OF AEROPLANE AND PEOPLE STANDING (2 SHOTS) SLV VARIOUS, AEROPLANE ON TARMAC / SOLDIERS ON GROUND (2 SHOTS) SCU PILOT IN COCKPIT OF PLANE VARIOUS, OF PLANE ON RUNWAY (3 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 3rd September 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAMAKO, MALI / UNKNOWN LOCATION, ALGERIA
  • Country: Mali
  • Topics: General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVACCLKWY9EHMXB4ZLMRXBSTVF4R
  • Story Text: Fourteen European hostages, released by an Algerian militant group, prepare to return to Europe on board a German plane.
    A German plane, scheduled to take 14 released hostages back to Europe, was preparing for take-off on Tuesday (August 19) at an airport in Mali's capital of Bamako.
    The European hostages - nine Germans, four Swiss and one Dutch tourist - are expected to be flown to Germany later in the day.
    The 14 were among 32 tourists seized in separate incidents in February and March while travelling in southern Algeria, famous for its grave sites but notorious for smuggling and banditry.
    Unconfirmed media reports said Algerian militants handed over the 14 hostages on Monday (August 18) after a ransom was paid, but government officials have refused to comment.
    Algeria says they were kidnapped by the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), who are fighting for a purist Islamist state.
    The 14 were transferred to Mali last month afte Algerian commandos rescued 17 hostages in May.
    German officials, who have led the negotiations along with their Malian counterparts, have refused to confirm or deny German media reports that the kidnappers had demanded security guarantees and some $5 million USD for each hostage.
    Malian officials said last week that kidnappers had demanded a ransom, but that the impoverished country could not pay it.
    Asked by a Dutch television station if a ransom had been paid, Dutch Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said: "I cannot confirm that, but you know that Dutch policy is, and will always be, not to pay ransoms when Dutch nationals are abducted."
    Germany has two planes in Mali to help bring the group home.
    The episode has been a setback for oil-rich Algeria, which had seen a sharp fall in rebel attacks and a return of foreign tourism and investment after a decade of violence in which more than 100,000 people were killed. The violence erupted after the cancellation of elections in 1992 that radical Islamists were poised to win.
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