SANAA: A Dutch man kidnapped along with his wife by armed tribesmen in Yemen earlier this week appealed to the Yemeni government yesterday to explore all peaceful means to secure their release.
“Our only concern is that the (Yemeni) government could use force to get us freed. I hope that the government will not use force,” Jan Hogendoorn, 54, told the German press agency in Sanaa by telephone in a conversation arranged by the kidnappers.
Hogendoorn said his abductors were treating him well. He was speaking from a mountainous village in Bani-Dhabian, some 80 kilometers east of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.
“Actually, we have no fear of the people here. We actually have fear of the actions that the government might take, especially when they will use force,” Hogendoorn said.
“I hope they can reach a peaceful solution to this problem, I’m convinced that this will have a good end if force is not used,” he added.
Hogendoorn, an expert at a water project funded by the Dutch government in the southern Yemeni city of Taiz, said the kidnappers had treated him and his wife, Heleen Janszen, well and gave them the freedom to move in the village.
“We are treated very well. We are quite comfortable. Everything is OK except our freedom,” he said. “We are free to move in the village, we are not locked in a room.”
He said tribal sheikhs have visited them at the kidnappers’ hide-out. However, he said the language barrier had made communication impossible.
