Diplomat attempts to secure release of citizens taken by al-Qaeda-linked group.
The two Austrians were reported missing on March 1 after they failed to return from a holiday [AFP]
By News Agencies
Published On 15 Mar 200815 Mar 2008
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The Austrian envoy had reportedly started negotiations by telephone with the kidnappers, who are now demanding a ransom.
In Vienna, foreign ministry officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the report.
Prisoner exchange
The al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb had ealier demanded five prisoners in Algeria and Tunisia be freed in exchange for the release of the two Austrian captives.
“… they are demands that cannot be met by the Austrian side because they concern the release of prisoners in Tunisia and Algeria”
Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, Austrian foreign ministry spokesman
Annahar
reported on Saturday that the request was made through a letter addressed to Austria’s embassy in Algiers.
Austria’s foreign ministry confirmed it had received an ultimatum from the group demanding a release.
The kidnappers had “made some political demands,” Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, a foreign ministry spokesman, said.
“But they are demands that cannot be met by the Austrian side because they concern the release of prisoners in Tunisia and Algeria.”
Among the prisoners the group wanted released were former soldierAmar Saifi, known as El Para, or the The Paratrooper, a leadingfigure in the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), whichin 2006 allied itself to al-Qaeda.
Saifi, who was allegedly behind the 2003 abduction of 32 European tourists, was captured in Chad and returned to Algeria, where he is awaiting trial.
Deadline set
A statement posted on a website attributed to the group gave the Austrian authorities three days to comply, starting at midnight on Thursday.
“The state of Austria is responsible for the lives of the two hostages in the event of the expiration of the time-period and not responding to our demands,” the statement said, which included six photographs purportedly showing the two hostages.
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The Austrian press has identified them as Wolfgang Ebner, 51, and Andrea Kloiber, 44.
Vienna said this week that it was doing all it could to find the two and that an extensive search was under way in an area the size of Austria.
Relatives reported the pair missing when they did not return from a holiday to Tunisia on March 1.
The two were last heard from on February 18 and failed to make a planned phone call to Ebner’s son on February 25.
The authorities began a search for the two tourists after Al Jazeera’s Arabic channel aired an audio tape, said to be from al-Qaeda’s North African branch, which linked the abduction of the consultant and nurse to the violence in Gaza.
The tape warned Western tourists to stay away from the Maghreb region of North Africa of which Tunisia is a part.
