The news that 14 European tourists held hostage in the Sahara by Algerian militants could at last be on their way home after months of captivity will be cause for great relief and rejoicing not only among their families and friends but among a wider public. The German press — nine of the hostages are German, four Swiss and one Dutch — has been full of the story, and the German deputy foreign minister has been to Mali where the government there has been negotiating with the kidnappers through Touareg intermediaries.
Assuming that all goes to plan, there is a serious question here about responsibility. In June a tourist, also German, was mistakenly shot dead and his companion wounded by troops in Indonesia’s troubled province of Aceh, prompting accusations of military incompetence. But what on earth were tourists doing in such a hot spot in the first case?
The group abducted in Algeria — there were 32, but 17 were freed when Algerian soldiers raided the kidnappers’ camp in May and one hostage reportedly died in captivity — were traveling in a country known to be dangerous. Tens of thousands of people have been murdered by militants in a civil war that has lasted for more than a decade. When they were there foreigners were especially targeted, to the extent that Algeria still tops the international travel warning list. No one in their right mind goes there without a compelling reason — and tourism is no compelling reason. The 32 were putting their own pleasure first. They decided that their adventure in the Sahara was more important than anything else.
The cost of their folly is there for all to see. One of their number has died, and the lives of Algerian soldiers dispatched to rescue them in May were put at risk. There is a financial cost as well. Algeria deployed thousands of troops to look for the hostages. Germany, too, conducted a search operation. None of this came cheap. Now there is the ransom that has been paid. Germany is being understandably coy about it, denying that it has paid anything. But a ransom has certainly been paid.
It would not be unreasonable for the hostages, plus any organizations that facilitated their madcap adventure, to be presented with a bill to cover the entire cost of the ransom and the rescue efforts.
International travel is easier and cheaper than it has ever been. Those in search of adventure can go almost anywhere no matter how dangerous the place. If people are going to be irresponsible, expecting others to put their own lives at risk and rescue them if they run into trouble, then a monetary tag should be put on that irresponsibility — one that both penalizes them and deters others.
