{"id":13780,"date":"2012-08-22T15:06:12","date_gmt":"2012-08-22T13:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/08\/mali-hostages-urge-govts-to-negotiate-their-release-jazeera-tv\/"},"modified":"2012-08-22T15:06:12","modified_gmt":"2012-08-22T13:06:12","slug":"mali-hostages-urge-govts-to-negotiate-their-release-jazeera-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/mali-hostages-urge-govts-to-negotiate-their-release-jazeera-tv\/","title":{"rendered":"Mali hostages urge govts to negotiate their release -Jazeera TV"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

ABU DHABI<\/span> Aug 22 (Reuters) – Three Western hostages seized
\nby al Qaeda militants in Mali last year have urged their
\ngovernments to negotiate their release, Al Jazeera television
\nreported, showing what it said was footage of the captives.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The three men appeared in good condition in the video
\nbroadcast by Al Jazeera on Tuesday night and posted on its
\nwebsite.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The hostages – Sjaak Rijke from the Netherlands, Stephen
\nMalcolm, who has dual South African and British citizenship, and
\nSweden’s Johan Gustafsson – were seized on Nov. 25 while walking
\nalong a street in the northern Malian town of Timbuktu. A fourth
\nperson in the group was killed.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The kidnapping took place weeks before secular and Islamist
\nrebels, some with links to al Qaeda, took up arms against Mali’s
\ngovernment. The insurgents later took advantage of the chaos
\nsurrounding a March coup to take control of the country’s desert
\nnorth.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

In the footage, Al Jazeera showed the three men arrive on
\nvehicles used by the militants, then walk around and sit down.
\nTheir voices could not be heard, and appeared to have been
\ndubbed over with a reporter’s voice, quoting them as saying they
\nwere being treated well and demanding their governments to
\nnegotiate their release.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

A still picture on the website of the Qatar-based satellite
\nnetwork showed the three men, all sporting long beards and
\nwearing traditional clothes worn by local tribesmen, sitting on
\nrugs laid out in a desert hollow, surrounded by masked gunmen
\ndressed entirely in black.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

In a video seen by Reuters in July, the three men appeared
\nbefore a flag similar to ones used by Islamist rebel group Ansar
\nDine which, along with al Qaeda faction MUJWA, now controls
\ntwo-thirds of Mali’s desert north, territory that includes
\nTimbuktu.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Al Qaeda in North Africa said in December it had carried
\nout the kidnapping. It has also said it was holding six
\nFrenchmen – two abducted from their hotel in the northern Mali
\ntown of Hombori in November, the other four kidnapped in
\nSeptember 2010 in neighbouring Niger.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Thursday the
\nsix were alive, but had been separated.<\/p>\n

(Reporting By Raissa Kasolowsky; Editing by Sami Aboudi and
\nAlessandra Rizzo)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ABU DHABI Aug 22 (Reuters) – Three Western hostages seized by al Qaeda militants in Mali last year have urged their governments to negotiate their release, Al Jazeera television reported, showing what it said was footage of the captives. The three men appeared in good condition in the video broadcast by Al Jazeera on Tuesday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-13780","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13780\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}