Bangladesh hostage drama continues

A fresh government attempt to secure the release of three foreigners suffered a setback yesterday after the kidnappers again failed to turn up for talks with official negotiators, local security officials said. The talks to free two Danes and a Briton have now been deferred and will be held at another nearby location in the southeastern Rangamati hill district, one official said, requesting anonymity.

He said the suspected tribal kidnappers, meanwhile, sent another note expressing their concern about troops cordoning off their suspected hideout and warned that they would forced to kill the hostages if troops were not withdrawn. "Bodies will fall," said the note in Bengali language. There was no immediate official reaction to the threat, but official sources in Rangamati said the three negotiators were optimistic about a breakthrough once they meet the kidnappers face-to-face.

Yesterday's meeting had been rescheduled after an original meeting on Wednesday was aborted when the hostage-takers failed to turn up. The meeting was due to start around noon in an unspecified remote bush area, some 35 km north of Rangamati hill town, from where the kidnappers seized Danes Torben Mikkelsen and Nils Hulgaard and Briton Tim Selby last Friday, demanding a ransom of $1.6 million.

The government requested the meeting with the rebels, who agreed to a time of 11am yesterday, but not to a location, earlier reports said quoting an official. Foreign Minister Abdus Samad Azad yesterday, however, said "we are close to a solution." The hostage-takers allowed another British consultant, David Wetson, to return to the district headquarters with a message from them for the hefty amount of money that has to be spent for buying the freedom of the foreigners from the "Robin Hoods of the hills."

Sources said the gunmen kept the three European consultants hostages in the dense forest of Kalapahar in Naniarchar, cordoned off by army troops. The Army has "blocked all possible routes to and from the suspected spot" near Kalapahar. Security forces also intensified their vigilance on Goimara, a stronghold of the United People's Democratic Front (UPDF), from where the foreigners were picked.

UPDF, however, denied its involvement in the abduction. With this incident in Rangamati hill district, observers said the 1997 peace treaty ending two-decades of bloody insurgency that left at least 20,000 dead has faced a major setback. The ruling Awami League claims that the CHT peace accord is one of its major successes.