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Germany: 2 citizens presumed killed in Yemen
[June 16, 2009] BERLIN (AP) -- Germany confirmed Tuesday that two German nurses who were among nine foreigners missing in Yemen are presumed to have been killed.
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Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters a team of German experts was on the way to Yemen to assist in the identification of mutilated bodies that authorities there said were found by shepherds on Monday. Steinmeier said the bodies had not yet been officially identified. The Yemenis said the bodies of three women were found and that one was that of a South Korean teacher. "We must, unfortunately, assume that the two German women who were missing are among the dead," Steinmeier said. It was the first official confirmation from Germany of the reports. He said five Germans remain missing despite "conflicting reports and speculation" that they might have been killed. At the same time, he said, German authorities "have to assume that they are in the hands of violent criminals." German Chancellor Angela Merkel called it "very sad news" and said she is doing everything in her power to clarify the fate of the others still missing. "We sharply condemn this act," she told reporters in Berlin. Yemeni authorities say the South Korean and German women had disappeared in the remote northern province of Saada on Friday. They were on an outing with six other foreigners, including a German man, his wife and their three young children. The whereabouts of the six is unknown, the Yemeni government said. Steinmeier He said the ministry's crisis team was working "intensively and unabated" to clarify the fate of the five Germans, in cooperation with authorities in Yemen. "We will do everything in our powers to return the Germans still missing in Yemen back home," Steinmeier said. Ten other Germans have been kidnapped in Yemen since 2001 and safely released within several weeks. |
