/ 4 May 2006

Germany accused of paying large ransom for hostages

Two German hostages kidnapped in Iraq arrived home on Wednesday as Iraq’s ambassador to Germany claimed a ”load of money” had been paid to secure their release.

Alaa al-Hashimi, said the German government had handed over a ”large amount” to the kidnappers of René Bräunlich and Thomas Nitzschke, who were freed on Tuesday after 99 days in captivity. ”Regarding the payment of ransom, I don’t know. But I assume it was a large amount of money,” the ambassador told Germany’s ARD public television station. The Iraqi government had no part in the release, he said.

The claim is likely to provoke fresh debate over whether Western governments should pay for the release of hostages or refuse to negotiate with kidnappers — the official policy of Britain and the United States. Italy and France are believed to have paid million-dollar sums for the release of kidnapped nationals.

Two British hostages, Margaret Hassan and Ken Bigley, were executed by their captors.

Bräunlich (32) and Nitzschke (28) arrived at Tegel airport in Berlin on Wednesday looking pale and exhausted but apparently unharmed. ”We are very happy to be alive. It was something we didn’t take for granted,” said Bräunlich. He thanked the German government for getting him out, adding: ”We are happy to be here again. We had a difficult time.”

The engineers, from Leipzig in east Germany, were seized on January 24 outside their workplace, an Iraqi-owned detergent factory in the industrial town of Baiji, about 175km north of Baghdad. German officials swiftly established that their captors were not holding them for political reasons. Instead they wanted to make money, diplomats said.

Asked on Wednesday whether Germany had paid a ransom, the Foreign Minister, Franz-Walter Steinmeier, said: ”We will of course say nothing about the concrete details regarding their release.” He thanked the US, Britain, France and ”other partners in the region” for helping to get the men out after three months in ”inhuman conditions”.

Although the release is a success for Germany’s Chancellor, Angela Merkel, who on Wednesday night held talks with the US President, George Bush, in Washington, there are questions about the wisdom of paying large ransoms to Iraqi gangs.

On Wednesday, Rolfeckhard Giermann, who spent five years in Baghdad as east Germany’s trade attache, said it was a signal to potential kidnappers ”that you can earn good money with German hostages”. He told the Sächsische Zeitung newspaper: ”This simply strengthens Iraq’s kidnapping industry.”

When the men were taken hostage, there was speculation that Germans were being targeted because Berlin, unlike Washington or London, had a habit of paying ransoms. Their kidnapping came a month after Susanne Osthoff, a German woman working in Iraq, was freed from captivity. German diplomats admitted the government paid $5-million for her release.

High-profile examples include a case in 2003 when at least â,¬5-million was paid to secure the release of 14 tourists kidnapped in the Sahara desert.

The release is good news for Steinmeier, who has emerged as a skilled crisis manager since he became foreign minister in November.

More than 200 foreigners and thousands of Iraqis have been kidnapped since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Most foreign hostages have been released. But 55 foreign hostages have been reported executed by their Iraqi captors — 41 in 2004, 13 last year, and one so far this year. – Guardian Unlimited Â