MARIB, Yemen, 25 December 2005 — Two Austrian tourists seized by armed tribesmen in Yemen were released early yesterday after three days in captivity. The two tourists were freed following two days of hectic negotiations between provincial officials and tribal leaders related to the abductors.
“We received the two hostages before dawn,” Chief Police Officer in Marib Gen. Nassir Al-Qawsi told Arab News, adding that the two Austrians were tired but “looked sound at first sight.”
Gen. Al-Qawsi refused to say whether authorities swapped the hostages for tribesmen detained for suspected links to Iraq insurgency.
Other security officials, however, said mediators made a deal with the kidnappers that authorities would look into the abductors’ demands if they freed the hostages. The abductors were asking for the release of three fellow tribesmen who have been detained since they returned from Syria two months ago. Authorities said the three are believed to have been fighting alongside insurgents in Iraq.
The Austrians, Peter Harld Schurz, 52, and Barbara Meisterhofer, 31, were held in a mountain hideout near Marib, some 195 km northeast of Sanaa. They resumed their tour accompanied by a police patrol after a four-hour rest in a hotel in Marib. Later yesterday, they returned to Sanaa accompanied by Austrian Ambassador to Oman, Andreas Karabaczek, and top Yemeni security officials. The Austrian diplomat was sent to Yemen from Oman to oversee negotiations with the kidnappers.
“Yemen is a very beautiful country,” Schurz said at the Marib hotel. Asked if such an experience would make them abandon future plans to visit Yemen, he replied, “No.”
The two Austrians were kidnapped on Wednesday by armed men from the Al-Jaradin clan, a branch of Marib’s most powerful Abida tribe. They were exploring historical sites in Marib when they were captured. They were forced at gunpoint to get out of their jeep while driving in a desert area near Al-Hatik town, some 15 km east of Marib.
