ICRC ready to help families contact 11 hostages

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday it was ready to help establish contact between 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims taken hostage in Syria and their families. The ICRC said it had been approached by the families of the hostages, kidnapped in May by Syrian rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad. The kidnappers have accused some of the 11 hostages, who were taken as they crossed into Syria from Turkey, of supporting the Assad regime. The kidnappers had previously said talks for the men’s release would not start until they received an apology from Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah for supporting the Assad regime. “The ICRC for one would act only on direct request of the families,” the head of the ICRC delegation in Lebanon, Jurg Montani, told Reuters. “And we have indeed been approached by the families of the pilgrims, and we are working with the delegation in Damascus to work on this file to try to ascertain where they are and to try to re-establish contact between the pilgrims and their families,” he said. Montani said the international body was ready to act as a facilitator for their return. “Should whoever is holding the 11 pilgrims decide to ask the ICRC to facilitate the return of the pilgrims, we would of course be ready to play our role there,” he added. The hostages appeared in a video in June and said they were in good health and being treated well. The rebels said they would release the men when their country had established a new “civil state,” but left room for negotiations. Meanwhile, U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly promised the families of the Lebanese hostages in Syria to convey their concerns to the United Nations. Plumbly met at his office in Yarze, east of Beirut, with a delegation from the hostages’ families who briefed him on “their concerns, which he undertook to relay to United Nations headquarters,” according to a statement from his office. During the meeting, the families asked the United Nations “to work to help secure a safe road for the abductees on their return to Lebanon,” the state-run National News Agency reported. For his part, Plumbly “recalled the expressions of concern by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and joint special envoy Kofi Annan about the abduction.” Plumbly stressed “the importance of the release of the abductees and their safe return without further delay,” the statement said. The United Nations would be in contact with Lebanese authorities and other concerned parties, the statement said. A delegation of the hostages’ families met Tuesday with President Michel Sleiman who told them that the release of their loves ones was imminent. The Lebanese men, all Shiites, were kidnapped on May 22 after crossing into Syria from Turkey. They were on their way back to Lebanon following a pilgrimage to Shiite shrines in Iran. A previously unknown group calling itself “Syrian Rebels in Aleppo” claimed responsibility for the abduction, saying five of the hostages were members of Hezbollah. Hezbollah and their families deny the claim. The group demanded that Nasrallah apologize for comments he had made in support of Assad. Nasrallah, a staunch ally of Assad, has refused to apologize, saying the abduction would not change Hezbollah’s stance on the events in Syria. From DailyStar