MSF plans rally over kidnapped aid worker

Tuesday, Apr. 1, 2003. Page 3 THe Moscow Times

By Yevgenia Borisova

Staff Writer Medecins Sans Frontieres will hold a rally near the Kremlin this week to urge President Vladimir Putin to step up the search for a Dutch humanitarian aid worker who was kidnapped seven months ago in Dagestan.

Arjan Erkel, 33, who headed MSF's field office in Dagestan, was kidnapped Aug. 12 after dropping off his interpreter, Aminat Gunasheva, at her dacha just south of the Dagestani capital, Makhachkala.

Three masked men, two of them with guns, stopped the Ford minivan being used by Erkel and his driver as it left the dacha and forced Erkel into a white Lada, according to Dagestani police.

Erkel was beaten during the abduction, the police said.

Dagestani Interior Minister Adilgerei Magomedtagirov said on March 13 that an investigation into the abduction has found that Erkel is alive, Itar-Tass and Interfax reported. He said it was unclear where Erkel was being kept but investigators expected the kidnappers to contact the authorities soon.

However, no ransom demands have been made, and the kidnappers have yet to contact MSF or the authorities.

MSF spokesman Mark Walsh said the rally, which has been cleared with City Hall and will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday on Ploshchad Revolyutsii, is an attempt to get some answers about why Erkel has not been found.

"We believe that President Putin must speak to all relevant people, all relevant authorities in the country, so that they do everything to save Erkel," Walsh said. "We need to know what happened to him and get him back. Seven months have passed, but we don't even know if he is alive or dead."

He said the authorities have not provided MSF with any information about possible motives for the kidnapping or the direction the investigation was taking.

He said repeated requests to meet with Kremlin officials have been turned down.

"Two weeks ago we wrote a letter to Putin asking him for an audience, but did not receive any answer," Walsh said.

A Kremlin official said Monday that the letter, dated March 18, was getting "special attention" but said he needed "a few more bits of information from different officials" before sending a reply.

"We plan to prepare a reply today or tomorrow," he said.

MSF, which has offices in 18 countries worldwide, has collected about 250,000 signatures in support of Erkel -- including about 25,000 signatures in Ingushetia, Chechnya and Dagestan.

MSF officials said the signatures and an appeal urging Putin to intervene will be sent to the Kremlin after the rally,.

"If he [Putin] meets us, we will give him the signatures personally. If he does not, we will deliver them to his office," MSF spokeswoman Narieke Zalk said.

Erkel is the second MSF employee to be abducted in the area.

Kenneth Gluck was kidnapped in Chechnya in January 2001 and released in a security operation 28 days later.

Staff Writer Nabi Abdullaev contributed to this report.