Sunday, January 31, 2010
Rachel and Paul Chandler say they are being ill-treated-Photo By AP
Rachel Chandler, 55, was described as being skeletally thin and in poor mental health. “She is sick, she is very anxious, she suffers from insomnia,” Abdi Mohamed Helmi Hangul, a surgeon from the pirate town of Hobyo, said.
In the video filmed on Thursday by a journalist from the Agence France Press news agency and broadcast by Sky News, Mr Hangul was seen examining Mrs Chandler and her husband Paul, who are being held in separate locations in Somalia.
The retired couple from Tunbridge Wells in Kent were visited by the doctor, who spent weeks negotiating access to the hostages.
Sitting on a patch of sand next to a 4x4 with Somali licence plates, Mr Chandler said that he was feeling desperate after 98 days of confinement.
“Will somebody please help – the Government or somebody else,” he begged.
“I just want to say please to my Government – get me and my wife out of here. We are innocent, we've done no wrong. We have no money and we can't pay a ransom.”
A Foreign Office spokesman told The Times: “We are monitoring the situation very closely and doing everything we can to help secure a release. We remain in regular contact with the family and are providing support. We call for the safe and swift release of Paul and Rachel.”
When asked whether Britain would consider paying a ransom to secure the release of the hostages, the spokesman said: “We do not make substantive concessions to hostage takers, and that includes paying ransoms.”
The Government is resolved not to pay a ransom for fear of encouraging further kidnappings. But this stance is coming in for increasing criticism as the seriousness of the Chandlers' condition becomes clear.
In two previous interviews the Chandlers have warned that they would be killed if a ransom was not paid soon. The pirates initially demanded £4.5 million for the release of the couple, who were seized on October 23 aboard their yacht, the Lynn Rival.
When cargo ships, tankers and trawlers are hijacked shipping companies invariably pay out the multimillion-pound ransoms demanded by the pirate gangs. Piracy against private individuals is less common and it is left to family members and governments to negotiate on behalf of the captives.
Not all governments are as uncompromising as Britain appears to be.
France and Spain have both paid ransoms to secure the release of their nationals. On at least two occasions President Sarkozy has ordered commandos into action against Somali pirates.
Last year a French man was shot dead during a firefight between commandos and armed pirates. Earlier this month it was reported that a planned rescue of the Chandlers by a Special Boat Service squad was abandoned after “bungling” delays.
In the video interview Mrs Chandler begged to be reunited with her husband. “If I was with my husband, I would feel a lot better. It's because I am not with my husband that I am feeling so lonely and desperate and finding it difficult to sleep,” she said.
“We are husband and wife and we have always been together and we look after one another. These people are treating us cruelly,” she added.
The doctor described Mrs Chandler as “mentally unwell”. Mr Hangul said: “She's very confused, she's always asking about her husband – ‘Where's my husband, where's my husband?’ – and she seems completely disorientated.”
Source: Times Online