Yemeni tribesmen’s hostage ‘now held by al Qa’eda’

Mohammed al Qadhi, Foreign correspondent

• Last Updated: November 22. 2009 12:39AM UAE / November 21. 2009 8:39PM GMT

SANA’A // One week after a Japanese engineer was kidnapped by Yemeni tribesmen, there are conflicting reports about the fate of the man, including the possibility he was taken by al Qa’eda members.

“The Japanese engineer who was held at Bait al Gob village in Arhab district was kidnapped by members of al Qa’eda, to which one of the tribesmen in jail belongs,” said Abduljaleel Sinan, one of the negotiation committee members seeking the release the hostage.

Japanese media have identified the man as Takeo Mashimo, 63.

“The relatives of the kidnappers were about to release the Japanese hostage, but one tribesman who belongs to al Qa’eda snatched the hostage Friday night and fled to unidentified area in al Jawf,” Mr Sinan told NewsYemen, an independent local online news site, yesterday.

Abdulrehman al Marwani, another negotiator, however, dismissed the idea that al Qa’eda had kidnapped the Japanese hostage. “It is not true that al Qa’eda kidnapped the hostage. We have been told the kidnappers moved their hostage into a village in al Jawf just to avoid the tribal negotiators’ pressure on them, though I expect he is still in Arhab,” Mr al Marwani said.

“We were about to reach an agreement with the kidnappers that they would release the hostage and we will write them a letter to guarantee the release of their relative in a month’s time. They were also seeking guarantees that they would not be arrested by the government.”

Mr Mashimo worked for a Japanese development agency in Yemen. He was kidnapped last Sunday along with his Yemeni driver by armed tribesmen in Arhab, 45km north-east of the capital, Sana’a, while on his way to to supervise the construction of a school building.

The kidnappers have said they would set him free in exchange for the release of a 22-year-old family member identified as Hussein Abdullah Gob.

Gob was imprisoned by US forces for a year in Iraq along with other jihadists and was later jailed for another year in Syria before he was handed to the Yemeni government.

Yemen has held Gob in jail for two years without trial, according to his relatives.

Abdulellah Haidar, a Yemeni journalist who specialises in al Qa’eda and jihadi movements, dismissed the possibility of al Qa’eda’s involvement in the kidnapping of the Japanese man.

“I do not think that al Qa’eda is involved in his kidnapping. I think the hostage was moved to al Jawf, where the Arhab tribes [have links]. The kidnappers feel they will be safer in al Jawf where the government enjoys loose control and in this way they will be able to exercise more pressure on the government,” Mr Haidar said.

Mr Marwani also said that the kidnappers were seeking guarantees from the government that they would not be arrested or harmed once they released the hostage, a concern rarely shared by al Qa’eda militants.

More than 220 abductions were reported countrywide between 1993 and 2009, according to Yemeni government figures. Tribesmen usually kidnap foreigners in order to pressure the government to carry out development projects in their regions or demand the release of their jailed relatives while hostages are rarely harmed.

However, nine foreign aid workers were kidnapped in June in the northern province of Sa’ada. Three were killed while the fate of the rest is unclear.

Two Japanese tourists were abducted in May 2008 by tribesmen in Mareb province, but they were released one day later.

Most hostages have been freed unharmed, but in 2000 a Norwegian diplomat was killed in crossfire, and in 1998 four westerners were killed during a botched army attempt to free them.

malqadhi@thenational.ae