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From: IRIN <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, Mar 21, 2013 at 4:02 PM
Subject: Aid worker kidnappings rise, fuelling debate over ransom
To: Elisabeth Janaina <[email protected]>
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*Aid worker kidnappings rise, fuelling debate over
ransom<http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=97697>
*
[image: lead photo]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<https://aidworkersecurity.org>,
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.
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’s our belief that paying ransom would make us more of a
target.”
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, as 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,” she told IRIN. “It’s not always
the agency which pays. Sometimes the victim’s government pays, and
governments differ in their attitudes. 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*
Ransom payments to designated terrorist groups are prohibited under
international law. But countries such as France, Germany and Spain are
alleged to have paid tens of millions of dollars over the past decade to
secure the release of nationals taken hostage by groups linked to Al Qaeda
in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), circumventing the prohibitions by making the
payments through intermediaries. This put such countries at odds with the
UK and the US, which refuse to pay ransoms, even indirectly.
“The payments of ransoms of this kind prove themselves to be beyond
irresponsible,” said Peter Pham, director of US-based research group Ansari
Africa Center. “You can’t even pretend you don’t know where that money is
going to: to purchase men and arms to use in violent conflict.”
But while the UK government has taken a strong public stance against the
payment of ransom, a recent meeting on the issue at the House of Commons
revealed a more nuanced policy. The policy - “we do not pay ransom or make
any substantive concessions to kidnappers” - allows, through the use of the
word “substantive”, a small amount of wriggle room. Officials also say they
are willing to negotiate and will talk to anyone who might be able to help.
People who may one day have to negotiate the release of a captive fear that
hardline policies against ransom could criminalize choosing to pay. But
this is not necessarily the case; even though the UK government does not
pay ransom, it has not attempted to prevent its citizens from doing so when
the kidnappers are criminal groups rather than terrorists.
Shipping companies commonly pay ransom to retrieve their vessels from
Somali pirates. The going rate for a large merchant ship is believed to be
around US$5 million. For them, and for oil companies working in the Niger
Delta, ransom is one of the recognized costs of doing business. Some
Nigerian employees have been kidnapped and released several times.
These companies are inclined to pay up quickly, rather than engage in long,
delicate negotiations to reduce the ransom amount. But what these companies
pay ends up setting the price kidnappers expect, regardless of what
organization their victims work for.
There are security companies that, for a fee, will advise on and assist
with ransom negotiations. While their job is to reduce kidnappers’ demands
as much as possible, these professional negotiators oppose legislation
criminalizing the payment of ransom. They point out that various attempts
over the years to outlaw ransom payments have failed to achieve their aim,
largely because the families of victims - even when threatened with
prosecution - will always find a way to pay.
eb/aj/am/rz
Read report online <http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=97697>
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