SUVA, FIJI // Al Qaeda-linked Syria rebels who are holding more than 40 United Nations peacekeepers hostage in the Golan Heights are demanding they be expunged from a UN terror blacklist, Fiji revealed on Tuesday.
Speaking from the capital of Suva, military commander Brig Gen Mosese Tikoitoga said the Nusra Front has made three demands for the peacekeepers’ release: to be taken off the UN terrorist list; the delivery of humanitarian aid to parts of the Syrian capital of Damascus; and payment for three of its fighters it says were killed in a shootout with UN officers.
Mr Tikoitoga did not say whether the rebels’ demands would be seriously considered.
“These are the official demands that are being quoted to the UN for the release of our boys,” Mr Tikoitoga said.
Unconfirmed reports in Fiji’s media said the hostage-takers also wanted the release of Abu Mussab Al Suri – also known as Mustafa Setmariam Nasar – an Al Qaeda leader who was arrested in Pakistan in 2005 and is now being held by Syrian authorities.
Mr Tikoitoga said there were 45 troops in the captured peacekeeping deployment, not 44 or 43 as authorities originally stated. He released the names of the soldiers and said the Fiji government was operating a crisis centre for their families in Suva.
“I’m asking and I’m appealing to the public to help and be sensitive to the families in this difficult time and give them encouraging words and give them the support they need,” he said.
The military commander said a UN team had arrived in the Golan Heights from New York to take over negotiations with the rebels and every effort was being used to secure their freedom.
“Unfortunately we have not made any improvement in the situation, our troops remain at an undisclosed location, the rebels are not telling us where they are,” said Mr Tikoitoga.
“But they continue to reassure us that they’re being well looked after, they’re being fed well and are being kept safe. They’ve also told us that they’ve been taken out of battle [combat] areas.”
The Fijians, part of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (Undof), were captured last Wednesday when the rebels stormed a Golan Heights crossing.
Mr Tikoitoga has repeatedly stressed the Fijians are in the Golan Heights as neutral peacekeepers and do not take sides in any conflict.
Another group of 75 Philippine peacekeepers refused to surrender and eventually escaped from two camps on the Syrian side of the border after the rebels besieged them.
Syrian rebels, including Nusra Front militants, seized a border crossing with Israel on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights on Wednesday. The area has been engulfed in heavy fighting between the opposition fighters and President Bashar Assad’s forces since then.
Israel – which seized 1,200 square kilometres of the Golan Heights during the 1967 Six-Day War, then annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community – has been monitoring the situation across its border closely.
The UN peacekeeping force has been stationed there since 1974 to monitor a ceasefire between Israel and Syria. There are currently 1,200 peacekeepers from the Philippines, Fiji, India, Ireland, Nepal and the Netherlands.
Peacekeepers were detained twice last year before being released safely.
The Philippines said before the latest incident that it will repatriate its 331-strong contingent for security reasons, mirroring previous moves by Australia, Croatia and Japan.
* Agence France-Presse, with additional reporting from the Associated Press