Austrian hostages safe - envoy
2008-04-06 20:22
Bamako - An Austrian diplomat insisted on Sunday that the lives of two Austrians held hostage in north Africa were not in danger as a midnight deadline set by their Islamist captors loomed with no settlement reached.
"The hostages lives are not in danger. We'll continue efforts to free our citizens," said an Austrian diplomat who was in Mali to negotiate the release of 44-year-old Andrea Kloiber and 51-year-old Wolfgang Ebner.
The two were kidnapped on February 22 by members of the Algeria-based al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb who set a deadline of midnight on Sunday for Austria to pay a ransom and meet other demands in return for the hostages' release.
Another source said negotiations were slow because it was difficult to track down the kidnappers, who "move around a lot" in the desert between Algeria and Mali.
The kidnappers initially set a March 16 deadline which they extended to March 23 and finally to Sunday.
They threatened to kill the hostages if any attempt was made to free them by force.
More ransom demands
Austrian national radio ORF said the kidnappers had raised their ransom and had demanded the withdrawal of Austrian troops from Afghanistan and the release of an Islamist couple sentenced to prison in Vienna for distributing a video that threatened attacks in Austria and Germany.
A source in Bamako close to the case said on Sunday that Algeria and Austria were not ready to release armed Islamists.
"The ransom clearly remains at the heart of the matter... although nobody is talking about it publicly," the source said.