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Fears grow for missing tourists
31/03/2003 10:20 - (SA)
Algiers - Fears are growing for the safety of 11 European tourists missing for more than five weeks in the vast Sahara desert, according to diplomats in the Algerian capital.
No trace has been found of the six Germans, four Swiss and one Dutch national since they went missing on February 21 despite intense searches by the Algerian authorities, diplomatic sources said on Sunday.
Helicopters equipped with heat-seeking equipment have been used to search the remote and vast desert areas in case the missing and their vehicles have been buried in the sand, they said. But to no avail.
"It leaves us baffled and we are forced to consider all eventualities, even that they have been kidnapped even though for the time being we don't know why," one diplomat said.
The six Germans were travelling in two groups, one of four motorbikes, and the second comprising two bikes and including the Dutch national. They were at Djanet, about 1 500km southeast of Algiers and were travelling north to Ouargla, via Illizi about 100km north of Djanet.
The four Swiss were travelling in the opposite direction in a four-wheel drive vehicle heading south from Ouargla to Illizi close to the Algerian-Libyan border.
So far western embassies and travel companies involved in the search have found no explanation for the disappearances.
There has been no official comment on their fate.
"Eleven people with vehicles and all their stuff, that leaves traces. They can't just vanish into thin air," added the diplomat.
Numerous smuggling bands operate along the borders with Niger and Libya where the missing tourists were last seen.
These bands, as well as arms and drugs traffickers, have some ties to the armed Islamic group led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar who a few years ago forced the Paris-Dakar rally to reroute after launching several threats against it.
- AFX
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