Kidnapped tourists moved from Sudan to Libya

Several million dollars in ransom is demanded for the release of 11 Europeans seized in Egypt.

By Arthur Bright

from the September 26, 2008 edition

Eleven European tourists and their eight Egyptian guides, who were kidnapped in Egypt last Friday, have been moved into Libya by their kidnappers, according to the Sudanese government. The Associated Press (AP) reports the kidnappers and their hostages had been under surveillance in Sudan, where they were originally held, but relocated on Thursday.

Sudanese troops "monitored" the kidnappers as they drove in three 4x4 vehicles from the Oweinat Mountain area in northwest Sudan and crossed the border into Libya, Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali Youssef told The Associated Press. ...

The kidnappers took their captives 10 miles inside Libyan territory on Thursday and are still on the move, Youssef said. Libyan authorities have been brought into the coordination between Egypt and Sudan on the abduction, he said, adding that he did not know the reason for the move.

The 11 European tourists and their eight Egyptian guides and drivers were kidnapped by gunmen while on a desert safari to Gilf al-Kebir, a remote desert plateau famed for its prehistoric cave drawings in the far southeast corner of Egypt, near the Libyan and Sudanese borders. The group included five Germans, five Italians and a Romanian — and two of the Italians are in their 70s.

The Egyptian government told AP that it had no information about the move to Libya, however, and Libya did not immediately comment on the report.

Mr. Youssef also said Khartoum now believes the kidnappers are Sudanese, rather than Egyptian. The Daily Telegraph reports that the Sudanese government claimed the kidnappers are tied to rebel groups in Darfur, but a rebel spokesman denied the charge, calling it "propaganda from the government of Sudan."

According to the BBC, Egyptian officials say the kidnappers are demanding several million dollars in ransom for the European tourists. The BBC notes that Gilf al-Kebir, which was featured in the 1996 film The English Patient, is near "chronic conflict areas" in Sudan and Chad, but is largely unpopulated and lacks a police presence.

Reuters reports that while the kidnapping of tourists is new to the area, greater numbers of desert bandits have been seen along Egypt's borders with Sudan and Chad in the past year.

The desert has long been used by smugglers running trucks full of African refugees fleeing north to Libya and beyond. But in recent months, heavily armed bandits have appeared on the scene in smaller pick-ups mounted with machineguns, guides say. ...

"Guides would go there (near the border) and see these machinegun-mounted cars," said Amr Shannon, one of Egypt's most prominent desert guides. "The signs were there prior to this year ... But the first piracy I heard of was this year."

Mahmoud Nour El-Din, an experienced guide and co-founder of Khaset Expeditions, said: "This is all very new – a kidnapping and armed people and things like that."

He added that even the people-smugglers had expressed "big time" fear of being ambushed by the threatening newcomers.

The guides also said two groups of tourists were robbed by bandits earlier this year.

Concerns about the kidnapping's impact on the tourist trade may have led the Egyptian government to stifle press coverage of the event. The New York Times writes the kidnapping "at first raised fears of a potentially crippling blow to tourism, one of the main pillars of the Egyptian economy."

Egyptian officials disclosed the kidnapping only on Monday, after it was discussed by Italian officials in Rome. But once it was made public, officials here sought to underscore that the victims were in a remote area closer to Sudan tha[n] any major Egyptian city and that it was a "mobsterlike" criminal attack and not one carried out by religious-inspired radicals. ...

Nevertheless, the kidnappings come at a time of crisis for Egypt. The nation is suffering severe inflation — especially for food staples — and a seemingly endless series of strikes among state workers. Its upper house of Parliament was recently gutted in a fire that rescue workers could not control for hours. Two weeks ago, more than 100 people were killed in a rockslide that crushed a neighborhood east of Cairo.

"Any event like this is extremely harmful to the Egyptian economy," said Samir Tobar, an economist at Zagazig University in the Nile Delta north of Cairo. "These people cannot possibly love their country. Egypt gets more than $3 billion a year from tourism."

The Egyptian government's response to media coverage of the kidnapping has also highlighted Egypt's constraints on the press. The Middle East Times reports that Egyptian journalists, at first prohibited from reporting the kidnapping, feel the government was trying to "restrict the local press."

Initially, the Information Ministry's press office prohibited Egyptian news organizations from reporting on the kidnapping. The decision was later revoked on the same day only hours after the ban had been called into action. ...

Egyptian journalists believe the move to allow them to publish articles on the abduction was because Western news agencies had already reported the incident on Sept. 19. Despite the lifting of the ban, giving local press the opportunity to report on the story, journalists remain frustrated that government actions continue to afflict their work.

"I received a phone call at 1:00 p.m. from the Information Ministry's press office notifying me of the decision prohibiting the publicity on the kidnapping case, although we had already prepared a piece of news for publishing," said Yassir al-Zayat, chief editor of the independent newspaper Al-Badeel. "Two hours later, I received another phone call from the same office, telling me to disregard the ban decision, which I was notified with earlier, and treat it as if it was not issued at all."

Menassat.com, a Middle East media news site, writes that journalists said the sudden implementation and reversal of the press ban is exemplary of the sorts of shackles the Egyptian government places on its press, the third such ban in two months.

"Issuing and then revoking this decision shows the lack of transparency present in the public sphere about press freedom. We are in a state of chaos and disorientation," said Ibrahim Mansour, executive director of the opposition newspaper Al-Dustour.

[The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information] responded by referring to the decision as 'unfair,' a violation of Egyptian law, and an attempt to limit public knowledge in the country.

"It is unjust to deprive the Egyptian journalists of their right to publish. This ban violates a citizens' right to access of information. It is also not legally valid, because the press office of the Ministry of Information does not possess the authority to issue such decisions," stated the organization.

For further information:
•	Ukrainian ship, tanks, snatched by Somali pirates BBC
•	German police arrest two terrorist suspects on KLM airplane Reuters
•	After clash, Pakistan issues warning to U.S. United Press International
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