Ex-hostage : “I owe my life to Algeria’s army”

Ingo Bleckmann was calmly telling the story of his abduction by terrorists in 2003 while two of his fellow-citizens are held hostage by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. He calls on the kidnappers to treat the Austrian hostages in a human way and release them.

The abduction of Austrian tourists Wolfgang Ebner and Andrea Kloiber has recalled hard period of 52 days for Bleckmann, 60, who said he was among 17 European tourists out of 32 kidnapped in March 2003 in Algerian Sahara.

The kidnappers were led by Saifi Ammari alias Abderrezak Al Para, a former senior member of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).

On May13th, 2003, the Popular National Army rescued the Austrian businessman, his son and four other Austrians as well as the other ones who come from Germany.

“We were looking for water in Illizi desert (south-eastern corner of Algeria) after we had been lost due to sand storms.”

“We noticed a landrover with its doors open and we wondered if it belonged to lost tourists.”

Six to eight Kalashnikov-wielding men showed up and said in French : “If you obey us, you will not be harmed otherwise You will expose your lives to danger.”

“As soon as I heared those words, I thought we would be inevitably killed,” Bleckmann told Echorouk.

“Four to five hours later, I talked to one of the kidnappers who told me that we were prisoners and we will be treated in that regard.” The hostages spent 52 days of forced marches in the dead of night, hordes of mosquitoes and flies during the day. They walked in all directions always with car lights off.

“My 25-year-old son Andreas who was always with was ready for the impossible for me.”

“I was looking at him and thinking of our arrival to Algeria from Italy passing by Tunisia on a landrover. We spent wonderful days in Algeria’s Hoggar and Ghara Khanfoussa.”

“Few days later, 15 tourists who had been kidnapped in February and March 2003 joined us. Their kidnapper belonged to the same group which were holding us.”

There were 25 to 30 gunmen. Most of them were from Algeria and three knew the Sahara well. Their leader and his driver was in a car which no one can approach.

The hostages’ food consisted in water, maize and raisin. “When we served dates, they were a high-class meal like roasted meat or caviar.”

The hostages were divided in two groups with 200 km separating each of them. Abderrezak El Para, the kidnappers’ leader had been coming to them three or four times and then disapeared.

“He did not stay for a long time with the group only to give orders and observe the hostages’ situation.”

“He talked a lot on the phone and it sounded that he had more than one cell phone to carry out negotiations for ransom.”

When the army identified the group’s location, the terrorists separated themselves from the hostages and ordered them to a hill. “come on, come on go there!”

“Those were the last words from the kidnappers before hearing explosions and firefights.”

Bleckmann said the Algerian army which killed nine of the gunmen avoided to harm the hostages.

As soon as the hostages saw the army, they realized that their sufferance was finished.

“I owe my life to the Algerian army after it showed high professionalism to save us.”

Bleckmann said the first thing he asked for was not water neither food. “But it was the phone to call my wife and my three other sons.”