Foreign minister discusses kidnapping case with head of aid organization

Jul 31, 2003 Posted: 11:19 Moscow time (07:19 GMT)

MOSCOW - Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov met Wednesday with the head of  the Swiss branch of Medecins Sans Frontieres to discuss the  kidnapping of an aid worker in southern Russia nearly a year ago, the  ministry said.

Arjan Erkel, a Dutch citizen who headed the North Caucasus mission of  MSF-Switzerland, was seized Aug. 12 by three gunmen in the Dagestan  region, which borders war-battered Chechnya. Russian authorities have  announced no progress in the investigation.

In a meeting, Ivanov assured Thomas Linde, director general of MSF- Switzerland, that authorities were doing everything they could to  find Erkel.

MSF has previously accused Moscow of lacking the political will to  solve the case.

/The Associated Press/