Imtiaz Sooliman – Sooliman on negotiations to release Pierre Korkie

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.