Efforts to release hostages held in Yemen
Yemen, Local, 1/21/1999

A four-member Dutch family and two Britons are still being held as hostages in Yemen. In a statement, the Dutch embassy in Sanaa said the hostages are being treated very well and that their kidnappers are calling for the release of a man who is accused of a killing in their tribe.

The first secretary at the Dutch embassy in Sanaa, Peter Doust, expressed his optimism toward releasing the hostages, noting that negotiations are taking place between the Yemeni authorities and the kidnappers.

The Dutch diplomat ruled out the Yemeni authorities resorting to force as means of freeing the hostages. He stated that a "terrorist group had been involved in the Abyan incident," in which 16 Westerners were take hostage and four were killed in a rescue attempt, whereas the current kidnapping can be viewed as an "ordinary one in Yemen," usually "carried out by a tribe in Yemen who has a problem with the authorities and use the hostages as a means to pressure them."

A prominent tribal figure said that the tribe's leaders are mediating with the kidnappers and that speaker of the Yemeni Parliament Sheikh Abdullah al-Ahmar who belongs to the Hashed tribe, which controls the region where the kidnapping took place, sent his son on Saturday to take part in the negotiations.

.. identified said that the six Westerners were kidnapped by a man "who is fleeing and is accused by the authorities of killing a merchant in Sanaa at the end of October, 1998."

The Dutch diplomat said on Tuesday that the kidnappers, who belong to al-Shayef tribe, "seem to have wanted" to release one member of their tribe currently in prison. "The Yemeni authorities tried to force him to surrender through holding two of his brothers in custody, and he reacted by kidnapping the six Westerners in an attempt to release his two brothers."

The Dutch family includes four persons, a father and a mother, 30, and two boys, aged six and seven. While the Dutch embassy refused to disclose the names of the members of the kidnapped family, the British embassy announced the names of its two kidnapped citizens: Eddie Rosser and his wife Mary. Both are 60. The couple has been working for three years with the Dutch family in the "World-Wide Services" society.

Previous Stories:
  Yemeni mediation to release the hostages   (1/19/1999)
  Six more foreigners kidnapped in Yemen   (1/18/1999)
  Warning issued against executing Yemeni Islamist kidnapper   (1/15/1999)

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