Tag: hostages

Apparently, in many instances, silent negotiations can be productive while heightening the publicity raises the ransom demand; i don’t know; as i said, the police have their “tried and tested” methods. Concerned friends and groups who call the attention of the public while the kidnap is on-going, do so only because they feel, or they think, or they can see, that government authorities may not do enough or are not doing anything if/ because there is not enough public pressure on government to do its job. On the other hand, those who prefer silent negotiations, most of the time family members and close friends, are too afraid to make a mistake where a loved one’s life is at stake.

In the first few hours, or first few days where you need to establish communication lines with the captors of your loved ones, you’ll probably have to do a silent search by activating or mobilizing all, any, and whatever contacts you may have. But when no communication lines open in the first few hours or first few days (please don’t ask me how many hours or days, i don’t have a formula, i’m just basing this on former clients who’ve had missing relatives); when no communication lines open in the first few hours, or first few days, the longer you keep quiet without getting any info, the farther away your missing loved one would be; in other words, the possibility of finding him/her becomes more remote; so the family members have to decide when it’s time to raise hell when no useful information is forthcoming.

Handling kidnap for ransom is different from handling missing relatives who are politically active, and whom you think are in the hands of government security forces (as documented by Amnesty Internationale).

Apparently, in this country, the kidnap-for-ransom gangs can be talked with, can be bargained with, can be given something in exchange for the hostage; but will behead the hostage if negotiations fall through.

Government security forces who snatch activists as documented by Amnesty Internationale on the other hand operate under a veneer of “anti-communist ideology” and “anti-communist self-righteousness” that they think are non-negotiable, and think nothing of “disappearing” their captives.

The first are lawless elements, the second think they are above the law.

The first can be wiped out by professional law-enforcement: systematic gathering of intel information, identification, pursuit, arrests, etc. The second, when it is unofficially abetted by government, can be resolved only by the abatement of the regime that enables it.