SAN’A, Yemen — A Japanese building construction engineer and
his Yemeni driver were released unharmed Monday night, eight days after they
were abducted by armed tribesmen in Arhab, a northeastern suburb of the Yemeni
capital of San’a.
“I’d like to express my thanks to all the people
concerned with our release,” 63-year-old Takeo Mashimo said at a news
conference at the San’a provincial government office shortly after 9 p.m., an
hour after the two men were released.
“I feel truly happy,” said Mashimo, an employee of
a Tokyo-based architectural design firm.
According to Japan’s Foreign Ministry, the abductors —
comprising an unspecified number of local tribesmen — freed Mashimo and his
driver at about 8 p.m. Monday.
Mashimo then was taken in a four-wheel-drive vehicle to the
provincial government office, accompanied by local tribal leaders who acted as
mediators in negotiations with the abductors. There he met the Japanese
ambassador to Yemen, Shoichi Toshikage, embassy officials said.
Mashimo appeared a bit tired at the press conference but
said in a strong voice, “I feel very relieved to have been freed safely
and am full of thanks.”
Mashimo has been living in San’a since March 2008 to help
construct primary and middle schools in Yemen at the behest of the Japan
International Cooperation Agency, a government-funded foreign assistance
organization.
He and the Yemeni driver were kidnapped by an armed group of
tribesman on their way to a construction site in Arhab on the afternoon of Nov.
15.
According to local tribal sources, the abductors demanded
that a relative who has been detained without trial for four years be released
in exchange for the two men’s freedom. According to police, the relative took
part in anti-U.S. struggles in Iraq and is believed to have ties with the
international terrorist network al-Qaida.
The Yemeni government had tribal leaders in the area serve
as go-betweens.
During the negotiations, the government promised to conduct
the relative’s trial as soon as possible. The negotiations were protracted,
however, as the abductors adamantly demanded that their relative be released
first.
One source involved in the negotiations told The Yomiuri
Shimbun later Monday on condition of anonymity that an agreement was finally
reached under which the government promised not to prosecute the abductors and
to immediately begin procedures for the relative’s release.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service.
