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Algeria might allow ransoms
06/06/2003 15:54 - (SA)
Munich - Algeria may allow Germany, Austria and the Netherlands to raise a ransom to secure the release of 15 Europeans being held captive in the Sahara desert, Germany's weekly news magazine, Focus, reports in its Saturday edition.
Citing diplomatic sources, it said Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was trying to draw the countries into joint negotiations on a ransom of up to several million euros.
Part of the deal would be safe passage to Libya for the hostage-takers, the magazine went on.
Fifteen Europeans - 10 Germans, four Swiss and a Dutchman - are believed to be held in an isolated location near the border with Libya.
They disappeared after setting off on tours in the Algerian Sahara between mid-February and mid-March.
Seventeen other European tourists - 10 Austrians, six Germans and a Swede - also disappeared, but were rescued by Algerian security forces on May 13.
Earlier this week, Bouteflika said he was willing to leave a "way out" for the Islamic extremists, without elaborating on what he meant.
A way out for the terrorists
"The hostages are together in the same place and the troublemakers as well as the hostages have been surrounded," he told European parliamentarians on a visit to Strasbourg.
While criticising the tourists for travelling into the vast Sahara without guides, he said Algerian authorities had no intention of leaving them to their fate.
"To save the lives of human beings, to save the hostages, I am ready to leave a way out for the terrorists... It is the most I can do."
Meanwhile, another German news magazine, Der Spiegel, reports in its latest edition on Saturday that the German army is mulling over a request by foreign minister Joschka Fischer to use military surveillance aircraft, ships and unmanned spy planes to help Algerian security forces in the search.
The German foreign ministry has consistently refused to comment on the situation.
- AFX
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