German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer will travel to Algeria today for talks with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on the fate of 31 European tourists, most of them Germans, who are missing and feared kidnapped in the Sahara.
“The efforts to shed light on the fate of those who disappeared in Algeria will be at the centre of discussions, Fischer’s office said in a statement, adding that he would also meet his Algerian counterpart Abdelaziz Belkhadem.
The story of the missing tourists was first broken by WorldNetDaily’s premium online intelligence newsletter, Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
Algeria has deployed thousands of soldiers to hunt for the tourists – 15 Germans, 10 Austrians, four Swiss nationals, a Dutchman and a Swede – some of whom have been missing since February.
They were traveling in six distinct groups without guides when they disappeared mysteriously in the space of a month in the vast desert.
Theories abound over the disappearance of the tourists.
Some speculate they simply got lost in the southern Sahara when their satellite navigation systems failed.
Others believe they were kidnapped by the smugglers and drug runners who operate there or by a group linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network.
The preferred theory over the past few days has been that the tourists were kidnapped by bandits seeking ransom money from European governments.
According to the Swiss magazine Hebdo, the 31 are alive and well and a ransom has been demanded for their return by an al-Qaida linked group.
“The Algerian authorities have received three ransom demands, one at a military command post in the southern zone, two others at police headquarters in Algiers,” said an alleged Algerian secret services member quoted by Hebdo.
The magazine claimed they were kidnapped by a gang led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar, nicknamed the “Marlboro godfather” for his involvement in cigarette trafficking.
Belmokhtar is the leader of a local branch of the Algerian extremist Islamic group called the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat.
The German foreign ministry said that Fischer would also travel to Morocco and Tunisia to discuss the Middle East peace process and regional issues.
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