SANAA, 26 September 2006 — Yemeni tribesmen freed yesterday four French tourists after holding them for more than two weeks in captivity in southeastern Yemen, officials said.
The four were brought to the capital Sanaa by military helicopter where they were to travel to the residence of the French ambassador, according to parliamentarian Awad ibn Al-Wazir, chief negotiator of the mediation team that secured their release.
Al-Wazir, a tribal notable who has in the past been involved in mediating the release of Western hostages, said earlier that he had seen the French tourists after they were released.
A security official confirmed the Frenchmen had arrived in the Yemeni capital. “The four French (tourists) have arrived by helicopter at the military base” next to the city’s airport, the official said.
In France, Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy extended his “very sincere gratitude” to Yemen’s President Ali Abdallah Saleh for his “personal involvement” in the liberation of the four French tourists.
An Interior Ministry statement carried by official Saba news agency said the police and army had also assisted in the men’s release but that “no force was used.”
The security forces would continue pursuing the kidnappers in the southeastern province of Shabwa, said the statement, which named the five alleged kidnappers, all members of the Al-Abdullah clan.
The French tourists were seized on Sept. 10 by members of the clan to press for the release of fellow clansmen detained by authorities.
Tribal sources told Arab News that the hostage’s release came after a deal was brokered between the clan and tribal chieftains.
Under the deal, the abductors received promises from the government that five members of the Al-Abdullah clan being held by authorities over a running vendetta with another clan would be released later this week. Al-Abdullah is the same clan that last December kidnapped and held for several days a German diplomat, his wife and three sons.
Saleh, who won another seven-year term as president, said last week that the kidnappers “want to blackmail us” and that “serious and firm measures will be taken against the kidnappers.”
Scores of holidaymakers and foreigners working in Yemen have been kidnapped in the past decade by tribesmen demanding better schools, roads and services, or the release of prisoners.
More than 200 foreigners have been kidnapped in Yemen since 1991, almost all of them were released unharmed through mediation involving tribal leaders.
However, in 1998 a militant group kidnapped 16 Western tourists, four of whom died in a botched rescue attempt by police forces, and in 2000 a Norwegian diplomat was killed in a similar rescue attempt.
President Saleh has vowed to crack down on the abductions of foreigners which, along with attacks by Al-Qaeda, are hindering the state’s efforts to boost tourism.
