As the kidnappers of two German engineers issue a chilling 72-hour ultimatum threatening to behead them, speculation mounts that Germans are being targeted for abduction in Iraq because Berlin paid a ransom to free archaeologist Susanne Osthoff in December. Meanwhile the engineers' employer is under fire for sending them to one of the most dangerous places on earth.
In a videotape aired on Tuesday, the kidnappers of two German workers in Iraq demanded that Berlin shut down its embassy in Baghdad and German companies cease all operations in the country, otherwise Rene Bräunlich, 31, and Thomas Nitzschke, 28, will be killed.
"We are moved and shocked by the video," Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters. "It's testimony to a crime that shows a contempt for humanity." The engineers come from the eastern German city of Leipzig and had been in Iraq on a six-day stint to finalize the handover of a factory. The tape shows them wearing tracksuit tops and kneeling down in front of four masked men, three wielding guns and one shouting out the demands from a piece of paper.
The hostage-takers abducted the men last Tuesday outside their workplace in the industrial town of Baiji, 110 miles north of Baghdad, in the corner of the notorious Sunni triangle where the worst of the Iraqi insurgency has been concentrated, and where even heavily armed US soldiers can think of little else than making it back to their base alive. For western civilians, Baiji, site of Iraq's largest oil refinery, is a no-go area.
Experts from a crisis group led by Steinmeier are examining the pictures closely to determine what brand of kidnappers they are dealing with.
"We think the situation is serious," Steinmeier told reporters, adding that the government was doing "what is necessary and possible" to get the men released. He did not elaborate.
A first videotape sent out by the kidnappers last week alarmed Berlin officials because it showed a banner in the background that read: "Followers of al-Tawhid and Sunnah Brigades." Al-Tawhid used to be the name of the terror group led by Abu Mussab al-Zarkawi, the notorious leader of al-Qaida in Iraq who has personally beheaded hostages in front of rolling video cameras.
Diplomats in Berlin say that means the engineers may be in greater danger than Osthoff, whose abductors were primarily interested in money. None of the three previous kidnappings of foreigners known to have taken place in the Baiji area have had happy endings. A Turkish hostage was killed and a Brazilian has been missing for over a year.
For Steinmeier, who only became foreign minister in November, the last few months have been a baptism of fire. His crisis team secured the release of Osthoff, but that may turn out to be a hollow victory if kidnappers now get the message that unlike the British and Americans, the Germans are willing to pay to get their people back.
In a gaffe that may yet come back to haunt him, Steinmeier confirmed indirectly that money did change hands to free Osthoff. Asked if the payment of ransom money in her case may have triggered the abduction of the two engineers, he said: "Not the payment of a ransom, but the media reporting about it."
It's not just the ransom payment for Osthoff that was a problem. In her case, the German government for the first time dealt with the kidnappers directly, handing over cash without involving a third country or an organization to cover its tracks. That means the government can't credibly deny that it paid money. In previous kidnapping cases, ransom payments were also reported to have been paid. But because the money flowed via third parties, Berlin could claim that it hadn't given in to the kidnappers. In Iraq, news that a government makes straight payouts is likely to get around among insurgents.
"Germans in Iraq are now particularly attractive," said Kurdish leader Dilshad Barzani who worked to secure Osthoff's release.
Steve Romano, until 2004 the head of the FBI's crisis negotiation team which specialized in kidnappings, said governments must under no circumstances negotiate directly with kidnappers through diplomats or intelligence agents.
"Governments are rich, the kidnappers know that they can pay any amount of money," said Romano. On the other hand it's incredibly difficult not to pay. "People could die, that leaves no one unaffected." But if you give in once, you have to give in always -- kidnappers know that, he said.
Security sources said the German government has not yet managed to make contact with the kidnappers. German media reports said a number of mediators had offered their services but none of them had been able to prove they had access to them.
Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler last week criticized Cryotec, the eastern German hostages' employer, for sending the engineers to Iraq despite the dangers that became evident to Germans only weeks ago with the kidnapping of Osthoff. "Those who sent these two technicians there and let them work without protection bear a high responsibility," said Erler.
A number of politicians have demanded that Cryotec should foot at least part of the bill resulting from efforts to release them. And the German business federation DIHK warned companies not to send staff to Iraq where insurgents have kidnapped over 200 foreigners since the US-led invasion in March. Hostage-takers have killed some 39 foreigners.
The latest kidnapping shows how lucrative contracts to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure prove too tempting to resist, both for companies and the staff who venture into the death zone to earn fat bonuses.
Some 20 German firms are still represented in Iraq, according to the president of the German-Iraqi Association of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses, Gelan Khulusi. The number of German staff there is less than 50 according to official figures, but non-official estimates put it at several hundred, despite Foreign Ministry warnings.
To survive they either take the Rambo option of hiring heavily armed body guards earning $500 to $2,000 a day, or they try not to attract attention. Iraqi-born Khulusi wears a shabby suit when he goes to Iraq, always hires rusty old taxis and sits next to the driver.
Germans favor the high-speed option. Get in, do your job as quickly as possible and get out. That was the plan for Bräunlich and Nitzsche. Last year their 15-man company, which had a contract to build a plant that separates oxygen from nitrogen for the state-owned Arab Detergent Chemicals Company (Aradet), flew six Iraqi technicians to Germany to train them on the equipment.
But Aradet pressed Cryotec to send some German staff to start up the plant, so the two men traveled there on Sunday, Jan. 22. They planned to stay for six days. They seem to have felt safe. Bräunlich told his girlfriend there was no need to worry. In reality they were lucky even to have made it to Baiji, having traveled overland from Turkey.
Even the short trip from Baghdad airport into town is so risky that security services want $2,000 for the drive in an armoured convoy. It's unclear what arrangements the two kidnapping victims made to protect themselves. The company hasn't said whether it provided them with bodyguards. "In preparing the trip everything possible was done to minimize the danger," is all Cryotec managing director Peter Bienert has said on the subject.
Bräunlich, a keen amateur soccer player, went because he wanted to keep his job, people who knew him have said. "We know Rene Bräunlich very well and know that is was only the desire to protect his livelihood and keep his job that caused him to take on such a risky task," members of his soccer club, SV Grün-Weiss Miltitz, said in a statement.
In Baiji the two men intended to sleep in a building adjacent to the factory but they were moved to a guesthouse a kilometer away. In Iraq, even that short distance can be deadly.
When they drove to work last Tuesday, with an interpreter and an Iraqi driver, they were stopped by at least least six men in Iraqi army uniforms, handcuffed and put in the trunk of a car. The kidnappers let the two others go.
The German crisis team is preparing for all possible outcomes. Specialist negotiators from the Federal Criminal Police, Germany's FBI, have traveled to Baghdad and the Jordanian capital Amman. Before thery left they took some personal items belonging to Bräunlich and Nitzsche, such as a toothbrush. For a DNA test in the event of the worst possible outcome. |
Berlin, 4 May (AKI)j - The German government handed over a "large amount" to the kidnappers of two German engineers held hostage in Iraq for over four months and set free on Tuesday, Iraq's ambassador to Germany, Alaa al-Hashimi, has alleged. "Regarding the payment of a ransom, I don't know, but I assume it was a large amount of money," the ambasssador told German's ARD public television network, stressing that the Iraqi government had played part in the men's release. Germany's foreign minister, Franz Walter Steinmeier has refused to divulge any details on the release of Thomas Nitzschke, 28, and Rene Braeunlich, 32, who arrived at the German capital, Berlin's Tegl airport on Wednesday, looking pale and exhausted but apparently in good health. "We are very happy to be alive," said Braeunlich.
Iraq's ambassador to Germany said on Wednesday he believed Berlin paid a hefty ransom to secure the release of two German engineers who were held hostage in Iraq for over three months.
The German government refused comment Thursday on a claim by a German Muslim that Berlin offered to pay a ransom for her release last month from the hands of kidnappers in Iraq. 