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FIJI HAS FOR the first time revealed the demands being made by Al-Qaeda-linked Syria rebels who took more than 40 UN peacekeepers hostage in the Golan Heights last week.
Fiji army chief Mosese Tikoitoga said the rebels wanted their organisation, the Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front, to be removed from the UN’s list of terrorist organisations.
He said they also wanted humanitarian aid sent to a small town which is an Al-Nusra stronghold just outside Damascus and were demanding compensation for three of their fighters who had been hurt in recent days.
“These are the official demands that are being quoted to the UN for the release of our boys,” Tikoitoga told reporters in Suva.
Unconfirmed reports in Fiji’s media said the hostage takers were also demanding the release of Abu Mussab al-Suri, also known as Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, an Al-Qaeda leader who was arrested in Pakistan in 2005 and is now being held by Syrian authorities.
Taken
Tikoitoga said there were 45 troops in the captured peacekeeping deployment, not 44 or 43 as authorities originally stated. He released the names of the soldiers and said the Fiji government was operating a crisis centre for their families in Suva.
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He said a UN negotiation team had arrived in the Golan Heights from New York to take over negotiations with the rebels.
“Unfortunately we have not made any improvement in the situation, our troops remain at an undisclosed located, the rebels are not telling us where they are,” he said.
But they continue to reassure us that they’re being well looked after, they’re being fed well and are being kept safe. They’ve also told us that they’ve been taken out of battle (combat) areas.
The Fijians were captured last Wednesday when the rebels stormed a Golan Heights crossing.
Another group of 72 Philippine peacekeepers refused to surrender and eventually escaped from two camps on the Syrian side of the border after the rebels besieged them.
Irish troops were involved in an operation to free some of the Filipino soldiers, with a spokesperson for the Defence Forces confirming in the wake of the rescue mission that all troops involved were “safe and accounted for”.
Speaking yesterday, Defence Minister Simon Coveney reiterated his call for a UN review of the mission, and said that would need to happen before the next scheduled rotation of Irish troops, due to happen in the next four weeks.
The soldiers are serving in the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) stationed in a buffer zone to monitor a ceasefire between Syria and Israel since 1974.
Brilliant. I alway said that what the Atlantic Corridor needs is a framework to enhance collaboration. I’m just amazed that a multi-stakeholder regional cluster hasn’t been envisaged before now.
I am not convinced. I would use the example of silicon valley a region we should emulate. There you have a region with a huge amount of institutions doing their things and competing. No federally driven mergers or amalgamations. Take the example of Caltech, a small but amazingly successful IT. Give the institutions more autonomy and a fixed budget and let them compete.
First Tipperary Institute merged with LIT now GMIT. Why does this country think centralisation and merging is the answer to everything. It’s a just a ruse for more cuts but the people are too stupid to see it. Same with the abolition of the urban councils. A cash grab on the rich urban councils to save rural Ireland. Name one situation where centralisation/mergers has worked in this country?
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