Imtiaz Sooliman – Sooliman on negotiations to release Pierre Korkie
AI: Summary ©
Representatives from various political campaigns speak about negotiations with the media and the family of attendees, as well as efforts to build trust with attendees and the government. They emphasize the importance of maintaining trust and maintaining contact with the government, particularly in negotiations with the South African government. The speakers also touch on the issue of the American nationalists and their desire to negotiate for the release of Haley, while emphasizing the importance of maintaining trust and communication with the government.
AI: Summary ©
Welcome to am news morning. Thank you very much. Now, doctor, today
is D Day to pay the ransom for for for the school teacher that is
held in Yemen. How far the negotiations we've basically come
to a standstill last week, right up till Tuesday, we had, you know,
intensive negotiations. And it was three hours a day, three hours
twice a day, several times in a day, and the relation, the mood
was good right up to Tuesday night. But on Monday night it
started changing, because when, unless my office manager walked in
on Monday night, the emphasis was, where's the money? The $3 million
on Monday night and on Tuesday, when they realized that we don't
have the money, on Wednesday, there was only one phone call on
Thursday, there's one phone call. So from like almost six hours of
talk a day, it's gone to three minutes on Wednesday and Thursday,
and nothing today. They're now not answering the phone at all. You
know, so it because we knew from the beginning there is no way
anybody can raise $3 million who put that in the head that you can
raise that kind of money? I don't know, but we made it emphatically
clear that there's no way. In fact, we told even $3,000 is a
very difficult money to raise to give to you. Now, Doctor, the
family of the gift of the givers have requested assistance from the
public. Sorry, you mean the family of the caucus. Yes, the family of
the caucus have requested assistance from the public in the
form of donations. How's the public's reaction to that? And if
you can, if you can tell us how much money has been raised thus
far, I'm not involved with that, because we don't get involved with
ransom money. We only facilitators to help get Pierre and Jolanda
joland out of Yemen. The fundraising campaign is being
handled by the family, but I know to they haven't been pursuing that
very aggressively, because nobody's in this rights frame of
mind to be focusing on that at this moment of time, today is the
day, it may be the day of execution. We don't know, and you
can only understand what's going on to the mind of Yolanda and her
children. They must be devastated. Everybody must be praying.
Nobody's concentrating on doing any activity besides praying for
now, and you've just mentioned the question that I was going to ask
doctor as to how the family is dealing with this now, let's talk
about Yolanda. She was released last week. Are you able to take us
through the process of her release? Doctor, it started nine
months ago when my office manager heard that they were kidnapped in
Yemen, and he asked, Can we do something? To cut a long story
short, he went all over Yemen, left his number announced to
media, saying we are here as a South African NGO. We work in the
country. We do work. You could have captured South African
people. You know, South Africa is helping us. Please. Let's talk
sixth January, Monday, they called him up till that stage. We didn't
know who they were. Were they just honor the criminals. What is some
kind of group? Who did they? We didn't know that. They said,
you're looking for us Tuesday morning, nine o'clock meet us at a
certain place. When he went there, they told him that morning, we are
al Qaeda, you know. So I said, did they have masks on? He said, No. I
said, Then aren't you afraid for your security? They you saw their
faces? He says, No. They're not worried about all that, because
they're not afraid of anybody. So they're not even afraid if you saw
their face. So there's not an issue for them. So I said, focus
on building trust for them, which he did, and eventually, what
continues, negotiations. We managed. We did. Had faith. They
trusted him. He kept his work. He was always on time. Whatever they
told him to do, he did. And because of that process, on Friday
morning, of course, he showed them all the work we did in the
country. Now, can you imagine al Qaeda operatives sitting around
the table and say, Okay, let's look at these pictures of what you
did in Yemen. And they did that, and they said, Okay, there's a
possibility of here, maybe we can talk to the boys on the top and
see what can happen. And finally, on Friday morning, at 6am as they
promised, they delivered Yolandi to him free of charge. But that's
where the problem started. They said, we've given you Alani hand
to hand, free of charge. Remember, for Pierre, you have eight days.
We need $3 million or, you know what we're capable of, we already
know at that time, it's a lost cause. There's no way we can raise
$3 million now in the next 10 years, and we made it clear to
them, from the every discussion, that the time and more the time
the money is a big problem, because even if they have more
time, we're not going to raise that kind of money. And we try to
emphasize that over and over again. And we knew the only thing
to do was not about only extension of time, but to try to talk them
out of asking for a ransom doctor. What during these negotiations?
What is the al Qaeda group saying is their main reason for
kidnapping the couple they first, they said they thought they were
American, so we showed them password copies, and we said
they're not American. So now, since they're not American, you
got the wrong one. People let them go when they said no. So then we
are we then we're starting to think, is a policy about
Americans, is it a policy about money? We don't know. The
difference. What is your policy? We don't know. And we asked them
that, you know, it was very frank discussions with them, Doctor,
let's talk about the level of involvement, if any, by the South
African government. I spoke to them in May last year. But
government has a problem. Any government has a problem. They
have a standard policy that they don't negotiate for hostages.
Absolutely, the hostage taker? Sorry. So if nobody talks to them,
then who's gonna facilitate for the release of the hostages? Is
the issue like for the Russian hostages in 2009 nobody spoke to
them, so they executed it. They killed three Russian nurses
because nobody spoke to them. And we said, we understand
government's point, because you do it once, then they'll keep
kidnapping people, and you'll have to keep talking to them.
You have to keep paying money. So we understand that point of view.
The other problem South Africa has, it doesn't have an embassy in
Yemen. So when you don't have diplomatic representation, it
becomes so much more difficult. So you understand the prompt. But
because we have an office there, we have a track record. We have a
relationship with the government, the clans, the people on the
ground, everybody. So we worked with the ambassador from Saudi
Arabia. He came to our office together. You know this
communication all the time. That's the question I want to raise,
Doctor, you are a humanitarian aid Why get involved with this kind of
negotiation? Because nobody else is going to do it. And we are in
in Yemen, and our policy is do good. It doesn't say do good, but
don't read our situation. Don't wait it as a bank robber. Don't do
it. Yeah? So you do no jurisdiction. There's no
jurisdiction of doing good. It's unconditional and wherever you
can. And we knew, the reality is, we proved it. We got one person
out.
Now, Doctor, what else can you tell us at this point about this
whole hostage situation? Any hope I always have hope I always have
got, because at the end of the day, neither me nor unless nobody
in the world could take Yolanda out. That's only God's grace,
because my spiritual teacher said that whatever is done is done
through you and not by you. So we don't take any responsibility of
taking Yolanda out, or even for that matter, taking period if he
is released, and we hope it's released, it's in God's grace.
It's God's hands. Even Yolanda knows that. She says, look, at the
end of the day, my husband's life is in God's hands. Whatever
happens, happens, we have to do the human things here and try the
human mechanisms, and use your intellect and what God has given
you to talk, to negotiate. And we're still hoping that somebody
will see some reason and some rationale, and hopefully that Pia
will still be back with us alive without having to pay anything.
Have you as the gift of the givers. Doctor, appeal to
international media to try and, you know, create awareness around
this whole issue, to try and get aid from international bodies as
well. Again, we're not pushing the idea of aid. We're pushing the
idea of dialog. Because the moment you push idea for aid, let it go.
They collect the money, collecting the guy for another six months.
The other problem is, pay sick. How long more can you withstand
being detention. How long has he been there? Doctor, nine months.
If he gets complicated, he's already got disease. If he gets
complicated, he may die in detention. So the longer you
negotiate for extension of time he may die before you take him out.
So we have that thing to balance too. So we need him out as fast as
possible, without paid money. So the international media was used,
not or not used. We got the help, you know, to announce to the
world, and not as a gift of the gifts, can't do it because it
doesn't concern us. It concerns Yolandi and her family. So she
made an international appeal yesterday to for some reason,
please, can you release my husband? You know, he's an
innocent man. He's from Africa. He didn't do anything to you. We came
to serve your country on those basis compassion, somebody, we
hope it may look at that and say, You know what? Let me look into
this. What's going on? By God's grace. Let him go. Thank you so
much, doctor for talking to us today, and good luck with the
whole situation. That was Doctor. Emetia Suleiman, founder and CEO
of the NGO gift of the givers.