'No ransom paid' as Annetta Flanigan is freed
Three UN workers - including Armagh's Annetta Flanigan - who were kidnapped in Afghanistan have been released unharmed after nearly four weeks in captivity, officials said today.
“They are out,” UN spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said.
Armed men seized Armagh woman Annetta Flanigan, Philippine diplomat Angelito Nayan and Shqipe Hebibi of Kosovo on October 28, the first abduction of foreigners in the Afghan capital since the Taliban fell three years ago.
Officials said the three were freed overnight and had undergone medical examinations at a Nato field hospital in Kabul that showed all were in good health.
The news came hours after US and Afghan forces raided two houses in downtown Kabul yesterday and detained 10 people in connection with the abductions.
Most of the detainees were released after being questioned, an Afghan intelligence official said, and it was not clear if the arrest of a doctor who worked at a UN clinic in the city had hastened the hostages’ release.
Afghan officials believe a criminal gang carried out the abductions, and have said that negotiations centred on a ransom demand.
Still, a spokesman for Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said: “There has been no payment of ransom.”
“We appreciate the efforts of the UN as well as the Afghan government,” Silvestre Afable said.
It remains unclear if the kidnappers were working for a Taliban-linked group that claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and demanded that Afghan and US authorities free jailed comrades.
Syed Khalid, a spokesman for Jaish-al Muslimeen, or Army of Muslims, said today that it had freed the hostages overnight against an “assurance that the release of our 24 people would begin today”.
His claims could not be verified. Afable, the Philippine spokesman, insisted there was no prisoner-for-hostage exchange.
Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said the trio were “abandoned in one location inside Kabul” around 6am today.
He said discussions had been held with the kidnappers, whom he declined to identify, but insisted no deal was done and that the releases were unconditional.
“There is no deal with the kidnappers. They will be brought to justice,” he told a press conference.
He said it was “possible” that a Taliban-linked group which has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings had hired some criminals to abduct the three, who were in Afghanistan to organise the October 9 presidential elections.
The group, Jaish-al Muslimeen, or Army of Muslims, had demanded that Afghan and US authorities free jailed comrades.
“I cannot say they were not involved,” Jalali said.
He also said one person was killed and four injured in another police operation linked to the kidnapping north of Kabul yesterday.
UN spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said: “I’m told they are in good spirits and they seem to be fine.”
Officials said the three UN workers were given time to call relatives and friends and to relax.
“It’s a very happy moment, but also a very private moment,” said Almeida e Silva. He said all three would travel home to their families “very soon”.
The British government released a statement by Flanigan’s family expressing their joy at the peaceful end to the crisis and their thanks to the authorities.
“After all the terrible anxiety of the last 27 days it is an incredible relief to know that Annetta is safe and well.”
Philippine Foreign Undersecretary Jose Brillantes told Manila radio DZMM from Kabul that he talked with Nayan.
He said Nayan spoke by phone to his sister in Manila and had an “emotional telephone conversation” with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. He “was a bit apologetic” that everyone had to go through so much trouble, Brillantes said.
The abductions of the trio, seized at gunpoint from a UN vehicle a few hundreds yards from an election office in Kabul, raised fears that the Afghan capital could become prey to the kind of deadly kidnappings by insurgents that have plagued Iraq.
US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad hailed the releases as a ”major defeat to terrorists who wanted to export an Iraq-style of hostage-taking in Afghanistan”.
He said the Afghan government, people, the United Nations, as well as NATO peacekeepers and US-led coalition forces had worked together to bring about the releases, sending ”an important message to those who wish to disrupt the new Afghan democracy”.
The release was also a relief to foreign aid workers and UN staffers among Kabul’s 2,000-strong expatriate community, under virtual lockdown since the kidnapping. Large tracts of the country are already off-limits to relief workers because of a stubborn Taliban-led insurgency.
Jalali appealed to Afghanistan’s international backers not to lose their nerve in the face of the kidnapping which ”must not be repeated and will never be tolerated”.
“We hope it will not discourage the resolve of the international community to continue their work to assist the Afghan people in the pursuit of lasting peace and security,” he said.
