Hostages: Mali to step in
2003-08-07 20:42
Algiers - The Malian army will act to free 14 European hostages from their Islamic extremist captors if the ailing and elderly among them are not released by Friday, according to Algerian press reports.
"If by Thursday or Friday at the latest there is no release of the six sick hostages or the elderly, contact with the abductors will be halted to allow the military to take up the case," the police commissioner of the northern Mali town of Kidal told the daily El Watan.
The paper had reported on Wednesday that the commissioner referred to ongoing talks as "last-ditch negotiations" between Abderrezak Amari, the number two of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), and a Malian mediator, former Tuareg rebel leader Iyad Ag Ghali.
The abductors are reportedly demanding about €5m ($5.5m) in ransom for each captive they are holding in northern Mali.
The report said the military option to free the nine Germans, four Swiss and one Dutchman had been reviewed by Malian and German officials.
The paper also said Algerian elite troops had been dispatched to the border with Mali, near where the hostages are reportedly being held at the abandoned salt mines of Taoudenni, an area described as a "veritable no-man's land".
"For the time being, the question is who will lead this operation and with what means. The Malians hope for co-operation and co-ordination with the security services concerned in the case, notably the Germans and Algerians," El Watan said.
Ransom
Ghali, who was asked by Germany to lead the negotiations, returned to Bamako on Wednesday to report on progress in his talks.
The paper reported that both Malian and German authorities suspected that Ghali was leaning more and more towards the hostage-takers.
Ghali rejected the charges, saying he was trying to gain the confidence of the abductors and avoid a scenario in which "just as the door to negotiations is open, the authorities decide on armed intervention," El Watan said.
The talks hinge apparently on the huge ransom demand and the intransigence of Amari, a former paratrooper who deserted the Algerian army and joined the GSPC, which has alleged ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
But the daily L'Expression reported Thursday that Amari may have acted on his own when he took the European tourists hostage, going against the will of GSPC leader Hassan Hattab.
Hattab is reportedly at loggerheads with Amari because the intense media interest in the hostage drama could hamper the GSPC's arms trafficking operations into Algeria from Mali and its other southern neighbor Niger.
The group seized 32 tourists trekking without guides in the southern Algerian desert in February and March this year, of whom 17 were freed in a raid by Algerian special forces in May. A German, Michaela Spitzer, 46, died last month of heatstroke in the blazing sun.