Government offers reward for info on Belgians’ assassins [Archives:2008/1122/Front Page]

By: Yemen Times Staff
SANA'A, Jan. 20 ) The Yemeni government has pledged a 15 million Yemeni Riyal (equivalent to $75,000) reward on Saturday for information leading to the capture of gunmen who fired on a tourist convoy on Friday afternoon in Hadramout governorate, killing two Belgian women and two Yemeni drivers, a senior government official said.

Disclosing the names of the two European victims as Claudine Van Caille and Chlorine Bankole, Hadramout Governor Taha Hajer stated that security authorities are conducting an investigation to identify and bring the tourists' attackers to justice. “We have shut down all the outlets leading to the area as such may help in cracking down on the escaped murderers,” he clarified.

The area where the attack occurred, near a famous group of ancient multi-story mud dwellings in the town of Shibam, is not considered especially dangerous. There have been kidnappings in the area, but they have subsided in recent years after a government crackdown.

The bodies of the two slain Belgians were flown by military transport to Sana'a Friday night.

According to a Yemeni government statement released Friday after the incident, Al Qaeda might have been responsible for the latest assault. But one government official said that it was not yet clear who was to blame, and added that it was possible the attack was related to recent unrest in the south, where demonstrations by former military officers had spread into a broader anti-government movement and fueled periodic violence.

The Belgian press quoted Slovenia, the current holder of the EU presidency, as saying in a statement, “The EU presidency expresses its sincere condolences to the families of the two Belgian tourists and their Yemeni driver, who were killed in an attack in Wadi Do'an in Yemen's Hadramout province.”

“The EU presidency strongly condemns all forms of violence and calls on the Yemeni government to bring the perpetrators of these crimes to justice,” the statement said, adding that this is the second time in little more than six months that European tourists have been attacked and killed by criminals in Yemen

The victims were traveling in a convoy of at least four vehicles through an ancient, ruin-filled desert valley when the gunmen opened fire on them, a security official said. Four people were wounded in the incident.

Karina Lambert, who survived the attack, said it was carried out by four gunmen hiding behind a pickup truck parked by the road.

“They wanted to kill us, that's sure, because after the first bursts of machine-gun fire, they approached the vehicles and fired into the cars,” she told Belgium's RTL-TVI television network.

At least 10 suspects have been taken into custody and all roads leading to the governorate have been blocked, said a Yemeni interior ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht identified one victim as Claudine Van Caille, 65. He declined to identify the other immediately after the incident because her family had not yet been informed.

“We don't have any precise information about the involvement of Islamists, but we have to note that the province of Hadramout is known for its Islamism and its extremist groups,” the Belgian official further added.

He said the Foreign Ministry issued a travel warning singling out the region where the attack took place: “We have indicated very clearly that this is a risky venture.”

“The two women killed in the attack should have known the risks. Anyone who goes to Yemen knows that it is a dangerous destination,” De Gucht told a press conference in Brussels. “When you travel with a group specializing in adventure holidays, you also know that there is a risk.”

Eleven Belgian tourists who survived the terrorist assault in Yemen had an emotional homecoming in Brussels Saturday, a foreign ministry spokesman said.

“It was a very emotional event, and very sad, in that the family of the two victims were there,” said spokesman Marc Michielsen, referring to the two Belgian women who were shot dead.

“Most of them already knew each other because they had traveled together in the past. The fact that there were two dead and one injured, that they knew each other, only intensified feelings,” the spokesman said.

The tourists from Flanders, most of them elderly, were whisked away from the airport terminal, and members of their families, who had been awaiting their arrival, were taken to an undisclosed location by bus to meet their loved ones, the Belgian press reported.

The bodies of the two women tourists, shot dead when gunmen opened fire on jeeps the tourists were using to travel in the eastern province of Hadramut's Do'an Valley, were to be returned to Belgium at a later date.

Earlier, the Yemeni Tourism Minister Nabeel Al-Faqeeh said 12 Belgian tourists would head home on Saturday. However, their guide remained in Yemen to be with the wounded Belgian, 65-year-old Patrick Coucke, who was shot in the stomach.

An Interior Ministry official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said Yemeni authorities received e-mail and telephone threats of imminent terrorist attacks two days previous to the attack. The official said Al-Qaeda militants were pushing for the release of jailed comrades.

He attributed the attack to alleged Al-Qaeda fighters hiding in the Hadramout governorate, but the current situation of sharp social unrest in the south linked to unresolved issues dating back to the 1994 war of secession, combined with the government's war against the Zaidite uprising in the northern Saada province are sufficient to make Yemen an unsafe place for any tourists even in the absence of al-Qaeda.

Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al-Qirbi expressed on Saturday deep condolence for the families of the Belgian victims who were killed and wounded in the terrorist Hadramout attack, Yemen News Agency Saba reported.

In a telephone conversation with his Belgian counterpart, Al-Qirbi labeled the attack that targeted a convey of innocent European tourists and their local drivers as a 'criminal and terrorist act.'

The Yemeni official confirmed that security authorities, which are currently investigating the incident, would not hesitate to track down and arrest the assailants.

In July, a suicide bomber in an explosives-packed car attacked tourists visiting a temple linked to the ancient Queen of Sheba in central Yemen, killing eight Spaniards and two Yemenis. Yemeni authorities blamed the attack on an Al-Qaeda cell.
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