Austria confident that hostage talks will continue past deadline
BAMAKO (AFP) — Austrian officials were confident Monday that negotiations to secure the release of two of the country's citizens kidnapped last month in northern Africa will continue after a midnight deadline passed.
"We remain hopeful," Austria's special envoy Anton Prohaska said as the midnight Sunday deadline set by the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb passed without news about Andrea Kloiber and Wolfgang Ebner.
He declined to go into details for security reasons, but said: "We have confidence in the Malian authorities, at the highest levels, in creating the possibility of helping to free the hostages."
Ebner, 51, and Kloiber, 44, were abducted on February 22 as they were vacationing in the Tunisian desert and are now believed to be in northern Mali.
The Algeria-based Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb is demanding the release of a number of Islamists imprisoned in Algeria and Tunisia in exchange for the Austrians' freedom.
The kidnappers initially set a March 16 deadline for talks but postponed it at the last minute until midnight on March 23.
It has threatened to kill the hostages if any attempt is made to free them by force.
Austrian media reported the group was demanding five million euros (7.9 million dollars), although officially Vienna has refused to consider paying a ransom.
On Sunday in Vienna Austrian officials said they believed talks on releasing the pair would continue past the deadline.
"The crisis task force, working on the release of Andrea Kloiber and Wolfgang Ebner, estimates on the basis of current information that there will be more time for extensive efforts past the Sunday midnight deadline," the Austrian foreign ministry said in a statement Sunday.
Ministry spokesman Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal insisted however that it could not be said that the deadline was being postponed.
"I would only say that the talks can continue past the deadline," he told AFP.
On Saturday, the son of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, Seif Al-Islam, was quoted as saying that a decision on the hostages could be imminent.
"The negotiations have reached a decisive phase," Austrian far-right politician Joerg Haider told the Austria Press Agency, after a telephone conversation with al-Islam.
"Seif estimates that a decision on the Austrians' fate could fall in the next few hours," he added.
Haider announced earlier in the week that he had enrolled his long-time friend Seif al-Islam to help negotiate the Austrians' release.
He insisted on Sunday that Al-Islam was conducting talks with the kidnappers on his own initiative, after the Kadhafi Foundation, which he runs, denied any involvement in the negotiations.
"This isn't an initiative of the Foundation, but his own," Haider told APA.
The Austrian government has welcomed Al-Islam's efforts, but refused to confirm that it had requested help from Tripoli.
"For the sake of the hostages' safety and that of the people dealing on the ground, we do not want to give out any operation details," said Launsky-Tieffenthal.
Violence has wracked northeastern Mali for the past several days with clashes between government troops and Tuareg rebels, but Austrian officials said they don't believe the unrest poses any threat for Ebner and Kloiber.
