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| Arabia |
| Yemeni hillbillies free German hostages |
| 2008-12-20 |
| Three German hostages captured by Yemeni tribesmen were freed on Friday after a five-day hostage ordeal in remote mountains near the capital of Sanaa, a tribal source said. "The three Germans were released on Friday at 10 a.m. (0700 GMT) after mediation by a tribal dignitary from the Bani Dhabyan region" of the abductors, the source said on condition of anonymity. The tribesmen had abducted the Germans -- a woman who officials said worked for the United Nations and her parents -- to press for an end to a land dispute with another tribe and the release of fellow tribesmen jailed in the United States, Yemeni sources had said. After their release the three "are now in the house of the mediator, Sheikh Abdel Qawi Ahmed Obed al-Shuraif, in Bani Dhabyan," the source said. The sheikh was to deliver them to the Yemeni authorities. A tribal official said initially that one of the kidnappers was demanding $200,000 to compensate him for lost land and that police release his brother and son who were arrested four months ago over a land dispute. The architect of the kidnapping was named as Abd Rabbo Saleh Al-Tam. On Thursday, a tribal source told AFP the tribesmen holding the family hostage were also demanding the release of two Yemenis detained in the United States for supporting al-Qaeda. Unconfirmed reports on a Yemeni Internet site, Marebnews, said the mediator had promised Tam a ransom of 100,000 dollars in return for the hostages and an assurance that he would not face prosecution. Tribes have abducted more than 200 foreigners over the past 15 years in a bid to extract concessions from the central government whose writ extends with difficulty over the lawless countryside. In December 2005, five members of a German family, including a former deputy foreign minister, Juergen Chrobog, were held for three days by tribal kidnappers demanding the release by Yemen of five members of their clan. All foreign hostages have been freed unharmed except for three Britons and an Australian seized by Islamist militants in December 1998. They were killed when security forces stormed the kidnappers' hideout. |
| Posted by:Fred |