A British couple kidnapped by Somali pirates have appealed directly to the British Government to open talks for their release, fearing that they may be killed within a week.
Paul and Rachel Chandler appeared in a video broadcast on television tonight. It was the first time that they have been seen since they disappeared while sailing in the Indian Ocean off the coast of East Africa last month. In the two-minute video the pair were surrounded by armed men and looked thin, tired and stressed.
One of their kidnappers had a rocket-propelled grenade on his shoulder and the others all carried heavy machineguns and wore bullet belts.
Mr Chandler, 59, urged the Government to start negotiating over a ransom. His wife Rachel, 55, said: “We are very concerned about the future. Our captors are very impatient.” They also said their kidnappers had told them a terrorist cell was hunting them.
The pair were filmed by a Channel 4 News camera crew on Wednesday.
Mr Chandler, a retired quantity surveyor from Tunbridge Wells, and his wife, an economist, disappeared on October 23 while sailing from the Seychelles towards Tanzania in their 38ft yacht Lynn Rival.
Four days later a news agency was contacted by a pirate called Hassan who said that he had the pair captive and ransom demands would follow.
They have been allowed to speak to journalists on the phone, and in one conversation Mrs Chandler’s brother, Stephen Collett, made a direct appeal to the pirates to release them.
Later, the BBC received a ransom demand of $7 million but the Foreign Office said that it would not make concessions to hostage takers.
Today, the couple were shown on land, looking subdued. Mr Chandler said: “This is our 27th day in captivity. So far we have been provided with adequate food and water and facilities and so we are unharmed and in reasonable physical health. Mentally we are under great stress and threatened. Our kidnappers are losing patience. They are concerned that there has been no response at all to their demands for money.
“We ask the Government and the people of Britain and our families to do whatever you can to at least open negotiations with these people about money so that perhaps our lives can be bought back.
“They will not hesitate to kill us, perhaps within a week or so of now if there is no response. So please, somebody get in touch, otherwise we just sleepwalk to a tragic end.”
Mohamed Shakir, the pirates’ commander, told The Times tonight: “We are holding them in a nice bush place near Haradheere.
“We are telling the British Government and people that we will no longer tolerate for their silence of paying the ransom. They should not make their people slaves for us. We did not harm them but we may have another sudden decision.
“We have been preventing other groups from kidnapping them but if we don’t get respect soon, our decision may be harder.
“The old man is talented and jokes with us without feeling any fear. The old woman was rather sick the first days but she is well now.
“If we don’t get an answer from Britain, the decision will not be delightful for the British people.”
Source:The times
search the web
Custom Search
