UN Observers’ Kidnappers Demand Ransom
(Tbilisi, June 9 2003, Civil Georgia) – Reports say kidnappers of the three UN observers and their interpreter demand USD 3 million for their release.
According to the unofficial reports kidnappers demand USD 3 million; however UN Observers Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) makes no comment regarding the report.
The Tbilisi-based Rustavi 2 TV channel said on June 8 that one of the four hostages called the UN mission in Sokhumi, breakaway Abkhaz capital overnight to convey the demand.
The UNOMIG announced immediately after the abduction of their personnel that no ransom will be paid. Georgian authorities also categorically refuse to pay any ransom.
The UN has identified the abducted observers as Klaus Ott and Herbert Bauer of Germany and Henrik Soerensen of Denmark, kidnapped along with their Georgian interpreter Lasha Chikashua, on June 5 while on a routine patrol in troubled Kodori gorge, which is the only part of breakaway Abkhazia under the Georgian authorities’ control.
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