Posted on 08/23/2003 4:47:32 PM PDT by Brian S
Germany paid a ransom as high as 15 million euros (16.5 million dollars) to kidnappers of 14 European hostages, released from nearly six months' captivity in the Sahara desert, sources close to the negotiations said.
"There was no way out of the situation," a source told AFP in the Malian capital. "The hostage-takers insisted (on being paid)."
"That was the only thing holding up freeing the hostages, a week before they were liberated. Berlin had to give in," the source added.
The exact amount was not revealed, but varying sources said it amounted to between three and 10 billion CFA francs (4.2 to 15.2 million euros, 4.6 million to 16.5 million dollars).
The German government refused to comment on the reports on Saturday.
A foreign ministry spokesman said he had nothing to add to Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer's statement a day earlier, which simply said Berlin "was pleased at the happy outcome" to the drama.
"We will not comment on anything else," Fischer had said.
A source close to the mediators said the ransom money had been handed over to the abductors at a secret location beyond the reach of mediators.
"A German personality handed over the money," he said. "He travelled via the town of Tessalit", which is located in northern Mali, near the border with Algeria.
After receiving the money, the abductors had checked that they were not counterfeit notes, said a source present during negotiations.
On Thursday, diplomats in Bamako said Libya had of "its own initiative" paid a ransom of five million euros to have the seized tourists freed, adding that the money had passed neither through Malian nor German hands. Berlin on Friday had also refused to comment on that report.
A total of 32 tourists were seized in February and March as they were trekking in the Sahara desert and held hostage near the border between Algeria and Mali. Fifteen of that group were German.
Seventeen of the hostages were freed by Algerian special forces in May, while another hostage died in late June from sunstroke and exhaustion. The remaining 14 arrived back in Germany last Tuesday.
German news magazine Der Spiegel reported in its Monday edition that Berlin paid a ransom of five million euros for the hostages' release, which was delivered in small denomination notes withdrawn from Germany's central bank.
According to Der Spiegel, the ransom money was taken over to Mali in person by German junior foreign minister Juergen Chrobog, who led the negotiations on the German side.
The weekly quotes one of the former Dutch hostages, Arjen Hilbers, as saying that "it was clear from day one that they wanted money from our governments."
The weekly magazine also said that Germany was preparing to issue international arrest warrants for the abductors.
The main target for the arrest warrants would be Amari Saifi -- known as Abderrezak "the Para" -- the second-in-command of the largest Islamic extremist movement in Algeria, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
A spokesman for the German public prosecutor's office said Saturday that it was "too early" to talk about a German bid for international arrest warrants.
Glad I'm not German.
In exchange for paying money to terrorists, Germany and its citizens will get everything they deserve, I promise you.
Among those sought after is one of the leading figures in the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), Amari Saifi, 47, better known by his nom de guerre Abderrazak el Para. He claimed his group was responsible for the kidnapping in a statement faxed to journalists in Algiers.
The GSPC, which is reputed to have several hundred members, is fighting for a purist Islamic state in Algeria and has been linked to the al Qaeda terrorist network.
Yes, I think the wave of attacks against European tourists became a phenomenon after Florida passed its "shall issue" concealed carry law.
Robbers, concerned about being confronted and shot by armed citizens, started turning their attention to foreign tourists who were almost certain not to be armed.
Doubtless, this money will be used to buy weapons on the black market which will then be used to either kidnap or kill even more innocents.
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