Herhjemme oplevede vi, at en ansat hos Dansk Flygtningehjælp blev kidnappet i Somalia og befriet af amerikanske kommandosoldater sammen med en amerikaner – bortførelser og løsepenge står stadig højere på dagsordenen.
LONDON, 21 March 2013 (IRIN): Aid workers have experienced a rise in kidnappings over the past 10 years, from seven in 2003 to a high point of 95 in 2011, according to Humanitarian Outcomes, which keeps a database of such incidents.
Abby Stoddard, who works on the Aid Worker Security Database, told IRIN:
“Those numbers clearly show kidnapping to be a major and growing threat. In 2011 the numbers of kidnapping incidents outnumbered shootings – roadside and otherwise – as the main form of attack used against aid workers.”
How to respond
Several major aid agencies have begun training staff on how to cope with kidnappings, and agencies have had to formulate policies on how to respond if they are asked for ransom (løsepenge).
A Save the Children spokesperson told IRIN:
“Anyone who goes near a difficult or dangerous zone has to do a week’s intensive course. Aid workers are kidnapped, and we are under no illusions that we are going to be untouched.”
Save the Children had two people kidnapped in central Somalia in 2010.
“We relied on negotiating through local clan elders. We achieved their safe release, and we are incredibly grateful to all the people who helped,” said the spokesperson, adding:
“Save the Children does not pay ransom. That is absolute. It is our belief that paying ransom would make us more of a target.”
“We never pay ransom”
Oxfam agrees. “We never pay ransom,” said Heather Hughes, Oxfam UK’s security advisor.
“Although, to be honest, we at Oxfam have never really been tested. A number of our people have been kidnapped, but we have always been able to rely on our contacts in the country to get them released.”
But hostage negotiations are complicated, Stoddard points out:
“The vast majority of these kidnappings ended in negotiated release of the victim, but it is impossible to know in how many cases there was a ransom payment made”
“Agencies do not admit publicly to paying ransoms – or contracting third-party negotiators who cut deals with kidnappers – for obvious reasons,” she said.
Oxfam’s Hughes recognizes things are not always black and white:
“There are many ways in which money can change hands. It is not always the agency which pays. Sometimes the victim’s government pays, and governments differ in their attitudes, she told IRIN, noting:
“For the big agencies, their international staff can be very international indeed. We are British, but our most recent member of staff to be kidnapped was actually Swiss.”
Legal concerns
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http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97697/Aid-worker-kidnappings-rise-fuelling-debate-over-ransom
