Bruno Pelizzari and his girlfriend Deborah, left. File Picture.
Times LIVE Wednesday, March 07, 2012
Gift of the Givers has stopped negotiating with Somali kidnappers at the request of Bruno Pelizzari's family.
The Pietermaritzburg-based aid organisation was acting as a
negotiator on behalf of Pelizzari's family to secure his and his
partner's release.
"I confirm that Gift of the Givers is no longer involved in
negotiations after the family requested that they wanted to do it on
their own. We respect their wishes and have stepped down," the
organisation's founder, Imtiaz Sooliman, said yesterday.
Last week, the organisation sent photographs of Pelizzari and Deborah
Calitz to its representative in Somalia after he saw a couple, who had
been kidnapped by Somali pirates and then sold to another gang, who are
demanding a ransom for their release.
Pelizzari's sister Vera Hecht said yesterday the family wanted to
communicate directly with her brother's kidnappers because it was their
responsibility.
"The first thing that we need to do is establish proof of life,
something that Gift of the Givers was unable to do. Their agent
supposedly saw a couple but we need to know that Bruno and Debbie are
definitely alive," she said.
"I managed to get them to reduce the ransom from R100-million to
R500000 and I am confident that I can do it again. I think we just need
to be more in control of the negotiations and that the family must be
directly involved," she said.
Pelizzari and Calitz were aboard the yacht Choizil with skipper Peter
Eldridge, when Somali pirates boarded it on October 26 off the coast of
Tanzania. They tried to convince their captors that they were
working-class people who could not pay a ransom.
Eldridge refused to leave his vessel but the couple were forced to go
with their captors. On his return to South Africa, Eldridge gave an
account of his traumatic experience.
Eldridge, who lived on his yacht off the coast of Dar es Salaam, was
returning to Richards Bay to visit his family when he asked the couple
to crew for him.