NEW DELHI, 26 August 2004 — Kuwait is doing everything possible to secure the release of seven truck drivers being held hostage in Iraq, Kuwait’s foreign minister said here yesterday during talks with Indian leaders. The Indian government had called on both Iraq and Kuwait to help free the truckers — three Kenyans, three Indians and an Egyptian — who were taken captive by Iraqi insurgents on July 21.
“Kuwait is doing everything possible for the safe release of the hostages,” Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah told reporters after talks with Junior Foreign Minister E. Ahamed, who is heading a crisis committee on the kidnappings.
“The Kuwaiti company has done its utmost to secure the release and I think that there are still ongoing negotiations on that account.” The truckers were working for the Kuwait Gulf Link Company Ltd. (KGL) when they were taken hostage by a group calling itself the Holders of the Black Banners.
The captors, KGL and the Indian government have been holding behind-the-scenes negotiations for their release but the talks have made little headway — much to the despair of the truckers’ families.
The abductors have said the Kuwaiti firm must pull out of Iraq and have demanded “damages” for people killed by US soldiers in the town of Fallujah. The hostage-takers have on more than one occasion extended an execution deadline they had set for the seven captives.
Al-Sabah is due to hold talks with his Indian counterpart Natwar Singh during his three-day visit. The two sides are to sign an extradition treaty, an agreement on mutual legal assistance to deal with trans-border crime and a pact for the setting up of a strategic consultative group between the two countries, said officials.
The Kuwaiti minister called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Commerce Minister Kamal Nath. Discussions touched on the hostage crisis and bilateral issues, the officials said.
