Swedish Expert Kidnapped [Archives:2000/47/Front Page]

Last Tuesday evening an armed group from Al-Zaidi Tribe – Mareb, kidnapped a Swedish expert who works for a power station in Sanaa. They took him from Showkan, 5 kilometers from Sanaa, and led him to Al-Mahjaza, an area in Mareb. Mediating Sheiks of tribes initiated negotiations with the kidnappers last Friday. One of the sheiks told YT that the authorities rejected the kidnappers demands.
The most important demand was: reinstating of some men of the tribe to the civil and military posts they were dismissed from. Another demand was the implementation of two drinking water projects. Besides, they asked to be compensated for the damage incurred upon them by torrents in 1997. Tribe sources mentioned that the kidnappers had changed the place where they put the expert and security authorities did not know their whereabouts yet. The translator, brought to the kidnapped, mentioned that the Swedish expert was 70 years old and was running diabetes. Military forces in Serwah Mareb have surrounded the area where the kidnappers exist but have not yet launched any attack just to avoid escalating the situation.Security forces in Sanaa have alos surrounded houses of Al-Zaidi tribesmen in Sanaa and arrested six of them who study in Sanaa.

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