| Submit your comments on this article |
| North Africa |
| Missing Sahara tourists ’found’ |
| 2003-05-14 |
| A number of Europeans who are among 32 tourists presumed to have been kidnapped in the Sahara desert have been found, according to officials. Ten Austrians, six Germans and a Swede have been released and are said to be in good health, according to the foreign ministries in Vienna, Berlin and Stockholm. The fate of the other tourists - including 10 Germans, four Swiss and one Dutch citizen - is not clear. Announcing the release of six Germans, Interior Minister Otto Schily said he could not give more details. Speaking on German television he described the situation as "precarious". But he said there was hope that the 10 Germans would soon be free. These developments come a day after the German Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer, spoke of hostage-takers for the first time. Mr Fischer visited Algeria on Monday, where he held talks with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. In the past few weeks there had been growing European pressure for the Algerian authorities to resolve the mystery surrounding the tourists' fate. I'll be interested to know whether EU funds have been used to bankroll terrorists (again) or to encourage the Algerian authorities to maintain law and order in their own country. |
| Posted by:Bulldog |
| #9 GSG9 are some mean-ass,dedicated mothas.Look at what happen to Bader-Miehoff,and Red Brigades. |
| Posted by: w_r_manues@yahoo.com 2003-05-15 08:51:59 |
| #8 Guardian reports: "Algerian state radio today said the kidnappers were outlawed Islamist militants, Reuters reported. Quoting an armed forces statement, the radio station said the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat - also known as the Salafist Group for Call and Combat - was responsible. The group is suspected of having links to the al-Qaida network and is waging a bloody war against Algerian authorities." |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2003-05-14 09:45:19 |
| #7 Stern (article is in German) also reports there were possible casualties among the hostages. The operation took several hours and at least nine of the kidnappers were killed. |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-05-14 09:28:43 |
| #6 German press (Spiegel) reports that the hostages were not "found" but freed in an attack by Algerian forces (I bet the GSG 9 is in Algeria but this will be denied because of diplomatic reasons). Mike N, if you are referring to Munich 1972, this isn't very fair. Terrorism was new then and people weren't trained to deal with it properly in Germany. Munich led to the creation of the GSG 9 and they did a damn good job in Somalia 1977 (and later, with less publicised actions). When it comes to terrorists, Schily runs the show and it's zero tolerance with him. |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2003-05-14 07:39:27 |
| #5 You'll have to forgive me TGA, but I don't beleive you. Otto, or no Otto, Germany has a reputation for giving terrorists with hostages exactly what they want. (At least when the hostages are Jews on German soil)Otto doesn't run the show, Shredder does. This isn't intended as an insult. Hey. we got the same thing here. Just because Rummy would dropp the hammer without even letting the French know it was happening, it doesn't mean Bush isn't going to play diplo-games with the UN for 6 months. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2003-05-14 07:04:41 |
| #4 Otto Schily is about as anti-terrorist as John Ashcroft. You can safely forget about any money for terrorists. |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2003-05-14 04:22:42 |
| #3 The last sentence was mine, Fred. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2003-05-14 04:10:41 |
| #2 Guardian reports: "Algerian state radio today said the kidnappers were outlawed Islamist militants, Reuters reported. Quoting an armed forces statement, the radio station said the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat - also known as the Salafist Group for Call and Combat - was responsible. The group is suspected of having links to the al-Qaida network and is waging a bloody war against Algerian authorities." |
| Posted by: True German Ally 5/14/2003 9:45:19 AM |
| #1 The last sentence was mine, Fred. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 5/14/2003 4:10:41 AM |