Friday, March 08, 2013

Kidnapped peacekeepers to be freed in coming hours


Rebel commander tells BBC abduction of 21 Filipino soldiers near border with Golan was a mistake


The 21 UN peacekeepers from the Philippines who were kidnapped by Syrian rebels Wednesday will be released on Thursday, a high-ranking rebel commander said.
The commander told BBC Arabic that the abduction of the peacekeepers was a mistake and that they would be freed in the coming hours.
Video emerged Thursday afternoon showing the peacekeepers saying that they were being treated well.
One video shows three men are dressed in camouflage and blue bullet-proof vests emblazoned with the UN and “Philippines.”
One of the men says in English says they “are safe and the Free Syrian Army are treating us good.”
The other video shows six peacekeepers sitting in a room, and one of them says they are safe.
The Philippine government said earlier Thursday that talks were under way for the release of the 21 unarmed peacekeepers, who were kidnapped by Syrian rebels in the Golan Heights in the increasingly volatile zone separating Israeli and Syrian troops.
Foreign Affairs Department spokesman Raul Hernandez said the peacekeepers, who were detained on Wednesday, were unharmed and were being treated as “visitors and guests.”
Hernandez told reporters in Manila that the UN force commander in the area was negotiating with the leader of the rebel group, whose demands concerned the positioning of Syrian government forces in the area. He said there was no deadline for the negotiations.
Philippine President Benigno Aquino III said earlier Thursday that the UN force commander told him to expect the peacekeepers to be released within 24 hours, with negotiations progressing well. The UN Security Council demanded their immediate and unconditional release.
The country’s president, Benigno Aquino III, said earlier that he was told to expect the peacekeepers to be released within 24 hours, with negotiations progressing. Hernandez said the rebel group’s demands concerned the positioning of Syrian government forces in the area, and that there was no deadline for the negotiations.
The peacekeepers were kidnapped Wednesday by a group of Syrian rebels near the Golan Heights town of Jamla.
“They were in a military convoy doing their run. They were suddenly held at one Syrian rebel outpost. They were allowed to go through the first outpost but were stopped at the second outpost,” said Philippine military spokesman Col. Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos.
A video clip released by the rebels shows a number of gunmen standing alongside the UN vehicles, while their apparent leader announced his demands. Some of the United Nations employees can be seen inside the vehicles.
In a second video, the same rebel spokesman is seen accusing the UN, the Assad regime and Europe of “collaborating with Israel.”
“The Free Syrian army will remain here until we banish Bashar and his oppression,” one rebel is seen saying.
The video accuses the peacekeepers of assisting the Syrian regime to redeploy in an area near the Golan that the fighters seized a few days ago in battles that left 11 fighters and 19 regime forces dead.
A man identified as Abu Qaed al-Faleh, spokesman for the Martyrs of Yarmouk Brigades, announced the group is holding the peacekeepers until Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces withdraw from Jamla.
The UN Security Council strongly condemned the kidnapping and demanded the immediate and unconditional release of the peacekeepers.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, the council president, told reporters that armed groups had been threatening the unarmed peacekeepers. He said talks were under way between UN officials and the captors.
Churkin said the capture of the peacekeepers “is particularly unacceptable and bizarre (because) UNDOF are unarmed and they have nothing to do with the situation in Syria.”
“They are there on a completely different mission so there is no reason at all under any circumstances, any kind of sick imagination to try to harm those people,” he said.
Churkin urged countries with influence on the Syrian opposition to use it to help free the peacekeepers. He did not name any countries but Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are known to have been providing military aid to some Syrian rebel groups.
UN deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey said the UN observers were on a regular supply mission when they were stopped near an observation post and detained by some 30 gunmen.
Croatia announced last week that it would withdraw some 100 peacekeeping troops from the Syria-Israel border due to fears in the Croatian government that its troops could become targets for Syrian government soldiers.
Last month, UN staffer Carl Campeau went missing in the Syrian Golan Heights, sources familiar with the case told The Times of Israel.
Campeau, a Canadian legal adviser, was stationed at the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force base on the Syrian side of the demilitarized zone. Attempts by The Times of Israel to contact Campeau on his cellphone and at his office were unsuccessful.
Last week, The Times of Israel quoted a rebel activist reporting that Assad’s army had fled the Golan Heights area bordering Israel, and that rebel forces were in control there.
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Times of Israel/AP | March 7, 2013 | Article Link

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