Manama: Qatar’s Emir Shaikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani has welcomed home the Qataris held hostage in Iraq by their kidnappers since December 2015.
The Qatari citizens, who had been held hostage by unidentified gunmen since 2015, were freed and handed over to the Iraqi interior ministry, Qatar-based Al Jazeera reported on Friday.
Background
Hunting expeditions by Gulf nationals using falcons in southern Iraq is a deep-rooted tradition.
Up to 2003, the year the regime was changed in Iraq, hunting trips were under the direct supervision of the intelligence services, according to report in Iraqi news website Al Sumaria.
The Gulf hunters regularly purchased falcons from Iraqis in the southern part of the country where several associations breed them and promote hunting.
But after 2003, the number of Gulf nationals who went to Iraq for hunting dwindled due to security concerns, but expeditions never stopped.
Kidnapping: How it happened
It was a cool night in the desert of south Iraq. December’s chilly weather hung in the air as the group of Qatari hunters and their helpers were in deep slumber after a day of fun and hunting in the desert.
Suddenly the quiet of night was broken by the loud noise of revving engines and the war cry of a marauding band of armed men. The hunting party was rudely awakened by the commotion and it took a while for them to make sense of what was happening. That was the beginning of an ordeal for the hunting party, including Qatari royals, that would last 16 months.
The ordeal of the hostages started on December 16, 2015 when news of the kidnapping of 26 Qataris on a hunting trip in Iraq broke.
The news first circulated on social media and hours later Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement that it was monitoring the case of kidnapping of the Qatari citizens who had gone to southern Iraq on a hunting trip. The ministry added that it was liaising with the Iraqi government to determine what happened to them.
The ministry insisted that the Qatari citizens had entered the Iraqi territories with an official permit from the Iraqi interior ministry and through coordination with the Iraqi embassy in Qatar.
Mohammad Al Rumaihi, the assistant foreign minister for political affairs and Zayed Al Khayarain, Qatar’s ambassador in Iraq, were sent to Baghdad to follow up the issue with the Iraqi government, the ministry said.
The governor of Al Muthanna in south Iraq, Abdul Hassan Al Ziyadi, told the Qatari officials that a large group of armed men in 70 vehicles entered the area after midnight and kidnapped 26 Qatari hunters camping there.
He confirmed that the Qataris had all the necessary permits from the Iraqi interior ministry for hunting and camping in the area.
Al Ziyadi added that “the security personnel assigned to protect them could not prevent the kidnapping as the number of the kidnappers was too high.”
Qatar launched several diplomatic endeavours in its attempt to free the hunters, Qatari daily Al Arab reported on Saturday.
According to a report by the Iraqi police a day after the kidnapping incident, nine members the hunters’ party managed to escape and crossed into Kuwait. Out of theses nine seven were Qataris, one Saudi and one Kuwaiti.
Some Asians working for the hunting party had been left behind by the kidnappers and they were driven by the Iraqi authorities to Kuwait.
One of the person who escaped from the clutches of the kidnappers, told authorities that their 70-member team comprising members of the Qatari ruling family, some Saudis, Kuwaitis and others crossed into Iraq from Kuwait.
“Armed militias attacked the camp where the party was staying at around 2am and kidnapped all 32 people, including hunters, cooks and helpers, who were present there. The other members of the party were away on a night hunting expedition at that time,” he said, quoted by Kuwaiti daily Al Rai. He told the newspaper that kidnappers took them to an undisclosed location “The hunting expedition was duly licensed by the Iraqi authorities and the tent of their party was one of the largest put up by various hunting groups in the area,” he said.
Reports in Iraq at that time said that the nine people who had been able to cross back into Kuwait were workers and helpers and not hunters.
“They had not been kidnapped alongside the hunters and they were taken back to Kuwait by the Iraqi authorities,” an Iraqi police source told Iraqi news site Al Sumaria.
Ahmad Al Abyadh, an Iraqi political analyst, told Al Rai newspaper at that time that the kidnapped people could be used as a bargaining chip in negotiations to secure the release of detainees held by armed factions in Syria.
In March 2016, the Arab League referred to the kidnapping incident as an act of terrorism and a violation of human rights that would harm relations between countries.
A first breakthrough in the release of abducted people occurred on April 4, 2016, when Shaikh Fahad Bin Eid, a Qatari, and his Pakistani companion were released following intense negotiations.
On June 6, Qatar Emir Shaikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani pressed during a meeting with Iraq’s defence minister for greater efforts by the Iraqi authorities to help release and repatriate the Qataris safely.
Qatar continued to press for the release of its citizens and used the Arab League and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) meetings to highlight the issue.
