Autopsy confirms German hostage "shot dead" in Afghanistan

The kidnappers of the German hostages in Afghanistan (in a video from Tuesday): Two shots killed hostage Rüdiger Diedrich. al-Dschasira

MURDER IN AFGHANISTAN
Autopsy Shows Kidnappers Shot German Hostage

A German hostage victim whose body was found in Afghanistan in late July was shot by his kidnappers, an autopsy has found.
The kidnappers of the German hostages in Afghanistan (in a video from Tuesday): Two shots killed hostage Rüdiger Diedrich.
Autopsy results released on Thursday afternoon show that a German hostage found dead in Afghanistan just over a week ago died of injuries sustained from gunshot wounds. A spokesman for Germany's Foreign Ministry said Rüdiger Diedrich was shot and killed by his captors after a circulatory collapse.
Initially, German officials thought the hostage might have died of exhaustion after being taken on forced marches by his suspected Taliban kidnappers in mountainous Afghan terrain. An autopsy performed after his body was returned to Germany, however, determined that he had in fact suffered from a circulatory collapse, but that it didn't kill him. Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Jäger said Thursday that his kidnappers shot him after his collapse. "After his collapse, the victim, who was still alive at the time, was shot twice," he said.
The autopsy report states that victim suffered a circulatory collapse because of "extreme duress caused during the kidnapping." The collapse, however, "did not cause the hostage's death." It adds that two initial bullets killed the hostage and that four further shots were fired at his body after his death.
Diedrich's corpse has been kept since being returned by jet to Germany at Cologne's Institute for Forensic Medicine. A second German hostage, identified only as Rudolf B., is still in the hands of the kidnappers. Intense negotiations are underway in an effort to secure his release.
An engineer from the German city of Teterow in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Diedrich was kidnapped together with colleague Rudolf B. on July 18. His body was found on July 22.
dsl/dpa/AP/Reuters




07:34, August 03, 2007
Autopsy confirms German hostage "shot dead" in Afghanistan

A German hostage kidnapped in Afghanistan last month died of gunshot wounds instead of heart attack as previously believed, German Foreign Ministry spokesman said Thursday after an autopsy of the body.
The 44-year-old engineer was abducted together with another German engineer, who is still alive, by a Taliban group two weeks ago.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger said the autopsy showed that the engineer had collapsed but was still alive before the shots were fired.
A total of six bullet wounds were found in the body, he said.
The bullet-riddled body was flown back to Germany last week and the body has been under examination in the western city of Cologne.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is visiting Ghana as part of his African tour, said Thursday that " this crime must not be allowed to go unpunished."
"His abductors...finally put an end to his life is a criminal manner," he said.
The government is trying everything it could to free the second hostage who is reportedly suffering from high blood pressure and need regular medication, said the minister.
Al Jazeera television on Tuesday broadcast a video showing the German begging for help from the German government in a hilly area.
The video was a deliberate attempt to intimidate German government, said German Foreign Ministry.
The purported Taliban group has demanded the departure of all German soldiers from Afghanistan and the release of captured Taliban militants.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel had reaffirmed Friday that Germany will not give in to blackmails and will not withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.
Germany now has about 3,000 soldiers stationed in Afghanistan under the command of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), most of them in the relatively stable northern region.
The two German nationals and five of their Afghan colleagues, who are civil engineers working on a dam project in Afghanistan, were reportedly abducted Wednesday in Wardak province, about 100 km southwest of Kabul.
Source: Xinhua




Rudolf B. appears in good health and negotiators believe he is stable. al-Jazeera


SPIEGEL ONLINE - August 1, 2007, 02:00 PM
URL: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,497610,00.html
PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE
Taliban Ramp Up Pressure on Germany with Hostage Video

Negotiators continue to work for the release of German hostage Rudolf B. following the broadcast of a video showing the engineer. However sources say that the video was likely made days ago.
Rudolf B. appears in good health and negotiators believe he is stable.
German officials appeared nonplussed Wednesday following the broadcast of a video showing German hostage Rudolf B., who was kidnapped on July 18 in Afghanistan, surrounded by armed fighters in the mountains of southwest Afghanistan.
In a statement Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Jäger called the video, which was broadcast Tuesday night on the Arabic channel Al-Jazeera, "a targeted ... document designed to intimidate." Terrorism expert Rolf Tophoven agreed, telling the news agency Associated Press that it was clear hostage-takers wanted to use the one-minute video to "up the pressure massively."
Representatives of the Afghanistan government and local leaders have made regular trips into the mountain region near Wardak in southern Afghanistan, where Rudolf B. and four Afghanis have been held for almost two weeks, to talk with the hostage-takers.
Speaking on German broadcaster ZDF, Social Democrat floor leader and former defense minister Peter Struck said he believed the 62-year-old engineer had a chance of survival because it's unclear "whether we're dealing with a political group or a simple criminal organization."
'Local Criminals' Responsible
German government officials told SPIEGEL ONLINE they believe the latter. Though such a video is normally used by hostage-takers to push their political demands, officials continue to believe Rudolf B., along with the four Afghanis he was travelling with, find themselves in the hands of a band of local criminals lead by Mullah Nissam. Though he has ties to the Taliban, Nissam is not believed to be a Taliban leader.
The sources also said they believed the video to be days old. The USB memory stick on which it was sent to the broadcaster showed that the video was last altered on July 28. However the video cannot be older than a few days, as the fleece jacket Rudolf B. is wearing was sent to him through the negotiators by the German embassy in Kabul at the end of last week.
Rudolf B. was kidnapped along with colleague Rüdiger Diedrich and five Afghanis on July 18. Diedrich died shortly after his kidnapping of unknown causes. German doctors are conducting an autopsy in Cologne this week to determine his cause of death.
Based on daily conversations via satellite telephone with Rudolf B., officials at the German Embassy in Kabul have gotten the impression that he is stable and in good health, something now confirmed in part by the video.
In it, Rudolf B. speaks in barely audible English. According to Al-Jazeera, the hostage victim read a list of demands, which included the pull-out of German troops in Afghanistan. The broadcaster denied reports that the release of 12 Taliban prisoners was also among the demands.
Tophoven said he believes the video was intentionally released a few days after it was made, for maximum effect. "The timing on such a video is important," Tophoven told AP. "It's a type of psychological warfare, a game of nerves."
Military Operation to Free Korean Hostages?
In the interview, Struck added his voice to a chorus of German government officials who said they would not be blackmailed.
"We can't respond to such demands," Struck told German television broadcaster ZDF. Were Germany to do that, he said, "there would immediately be copycat crimes."
As the German government works for Rudolf B.'s release, the South Korean government is trying to take up direct contact with Taliban fighters holding 21 Koreans hostage since July 19. On Monday, Taliban killed their second Korean hostage in a week after their demands that at least eight Taliban prisoners be released went unmet.
Until now, the Korean and Afghan governments have been negotiating through middlemen in the Ghazni province in central Afghanistan. The Korean government now wants to deal directly with the group of fighters and consult more with the US government, according to the Korean news agency Yonhap.
Meanwhile, evidence began to mount that a military option might soon be underway. Afghan army helicopters on Wednesday dropped leaflets in Ghazni province -- where the Koreans were kidnapped and are being held -- warning people of a military operation in the area.