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Talks to free SA men in Iraq
12/12/2006 22:47 - (SA)
Deon de Lange and Christel Raubenheimer, Beeld
Pretoria - The government says its first priority is to get the four South Africans who were taken hostage in Iraq on Sunday back home safely.
Foreign affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa says all the department's efforts are focused on getting the men out alive.
"Our contacts in the region are pulling out all stops to get more information (to this end)," Mamoepa said on Tuesday.
He confirmed to Beeld that the men were still alive and that talks had begun to free them. The newspaper is not publishing their names, so as not to hamper the process.
South Africa has no diplomatic ties with Iraq, but SA emissaries in Jordan have apparently been pulled in to help.
Families waiting and hoping
For the families of the four captives there's just one thing to do: wait and hope that they will return alive.
A brother of one of the kidnapped men said the families were being contacted every hour by Safenet Security Services (SSS) who employ the men in security jobs in Iraq.
The company has also provided counselling for the family members.
The men may have been taken during a robbery in which millions of dollars were stolen from their armed convoy.
Five Iraqis who were captured with them were released on Tuesday.
Mauritz le Roux, a director of SSS, did not want to comment yet.
"All that the company knows for sure is that contact was lost with the convoy," the family member explained.
One of the men was hoping to return home for Christmas.
The family member stressed that the men are not mercenaries. "They are in Iraq to earn an honest living," he said.
- Beeld
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