Imtiaz Sooliman – Al Qaeda contacts Gift of the Givers regarding Korkie
AI: Summary ©
A representative from the Kortky family discusses their contact with Al Qaeda possession and the lack of communication from the government. They emphasize their stance on negotiating and paying bills, and state that their work is different from those of other parties. The representative also clarifies that the fundraising is collected by the Kortky family and their friends, and they do not raise money for ransom.
AI: Summary ©
Alicia? Now, doctor, you had contact with the
Al Qaeda militants yesterday via SMS. Has your
contact in Yemen managed to talk to the
kidnappers?
Yes.
We allowed a cooling off period on Saturday
after we were granted the extension of time
for Pierre, after we we had a stay
in execution,
and I deliberately moved him away from the
area to Sana for that cooling off period.
We knew they will contact us after the
deputy minister leaves, because on Saturday they told
us, your government is coming to Yemen to
talk. And when they said that, we knew
we're gonna get a response, and indeed we
did get that response.
Late yesterday afternoon,
they sent us a text message.
They said,
in our opinion,
your government is not interested in discussing the
release of clear porphyry.
So we asked, what makes you say that?
They said, your government didn't contact us, they
didn't negotiate with us.
And, we're sure they didn't they didn't talk
about ransom. How much ransom money did they
bring?
So we asked him, what gave you the
idea
that our government is not interested in pure
coking? What gives you the idea that they
want to negotiate with you? And what gives
you the idea that they want to pay
a ransom?
They said in the Yemeni media, there was
a report last week to say your deputy
minister is coming to negotiate with us, and
he wants to negotiate around the ransom.
We said, but that's not true. We've told
you guys from the 7th January, every single
day, right up to today, that the South
African government and governments in general don't negotiate
with kidnappers and they don't pay ransom.
They said that's true. All the governments say
that, but they say that in the media.
Under the media and under the table, they
talk to us and they give us money.
So how much money is your government giving
us? We said our government is giving you
no money and they're not talking to you.
And thereafter,
they sent us a picture of a bomb
belt as with a wire fuse attached to
it.
Now, doctor, in terms of the relationship between
the gift of the givers and the government,
how is that so far?
The government it's the relationship is is well,
there's no problem with the relationship. It's just
different modalities in working. The government has a
policy. It can't talk to the, kidnappers,
and it can't pay a ransom.
We don't have an issue talking to the
kidnappers because if somebody doesn't talk to them,
they will kill pure Corky.
Few years ago, there were 3 Russian nurses
in captivity.
Nobody spoke to them. They executed the nurses.
The government even met Anas. They met my
representative.
They had a long discussion with him the
whole day on Sunday. And ambassador
ambassador has been in contact with us from
May last year. I met Ibrahim Ibrahim before
he left for the trip. So we are
in constant communication,
but our modalities of working are different. They're
governed by international law and by the politics.
We follow our own system because we are
an NGO.
Alright, doctor. And with that said, what is
your way going forward from this point on?
We're waiting. You know, we're still having that
cooling period. Even after that bomb picture was
sent to us, we're still keeping the lines
of communication open. We know they will contact
us soon because that's the approach. One minute
they're hard, the next minute they're scary, the
next minute they're soft. So we will continue
with that with that kind of system with
them. We may meet them soon. I'm not
in a hurry
because the moment we meet them, the first
question they're gonna ask is where's the money?
Absolutely. And the moment you don't have the
money, they become sulky,
agitated, and angry, and they may just threaten
to cut the 3 week deadline to 1
week. And I don't want that to happen.
So we'd rather stay away from there for
now and just talk telephonically.
And doctor, speaking of money, please clarify because
a lot of people seem to think that
Gift of the Givers is negotiating
or trying to make awareness of the funds
to be raised themselves when it is actually
the Kortky family. Please clarify that for us.
We don't raise money for ransom.
Our only
place in this issue is that we are
the negotiators,
we are the facilitators.
The funds are collected by the Corky family
themselves and by their friends and, you know,
well wishers. We're not involved at all in
the fundraising
for the for for ransom for Korki family.
Thank you so much, doctor MTS. As always,
we highly appreciate your input, Raichu, on AM
News.
And, of course, that was doctor,
MTS Soleiman, the CEO and founder of NGO
gift of the givers.