Meeting Set, but Members of Carlsbad-Based Humanitarian Aid Group Still Hostages

The Carlsbad-based humanitarian aid volunteers taken captive earlier this week by government forces in Mozambique were flown to that country’s capital for a meeting today with American officials but remain hostages, a spokesman for the group said late Saturday.

David Courson, president of the Christian Emergency Relief Team, said his politically conservative aid organization learned of the meeting Saturday and also was told that eight people, not seven as had been thought originally, had been abducted.

The group, taken hostage by forces believed to be allied with the Frelimo party, the ruling party in Mozambique, was set to meet early this morning with U.S. Ambassador Melissa Wells, Courson said. The president of Mozambique, Joaquim Alberto Chissano, had taken an “interest” in the meeting, sending a letter to Wells, but had not guaranteed the hostages’ release, Courson said.

The letter indicates “there are no formal charges although the group is still in captivity,” Courson said. “Also, it reiterates what (Chissano) has said privately, that he has no intention of seeing this escalate into some type of an international problem and that he will do the best he can in his power to make sure the hostages are not abused.

“But it does stop short. It does not say they will be guaranteed to be released.”

Without a release, the meeting will serve as the “first time anyone from the United States government has been able to personally see how (the captives are) doing, their condition, to confirm they’re all alive and well, all things considering,” Courson said.

The eight members of the group, led by Dr. Ken Daugherty, a San Diego minister, were believed to have been flown Saturday to Maputo from Tete, a town in the northwestern part of the country where they were “forcibly abducted” Tuesday night, Courson said.

Original reports were of seven captives, six Americans and one South African. But Courson said he learned Saturday that there actually were eight hostages, six Americans and two South Africans.

“We kept hearing about a team of eight,” he said. “Actually, we heard of seven Americans and then two South Africans and we thought it was a mistake at first. But then we learned the State Department had counted seven Americans and I was one of them, so that was straightened out, so there are six Americans and two South Africans.”

Along with Daugherty, group members included surgeon Dr. Fred Leist, 48, and his wife, Lucille, 43, from Seattle; Dr. John Cannon, 69, a dentist, from Davenport, Iowa; Steven Sherrill, 48, a paramedic from Stroudsburg, Pa., and Carol Roberts, 26, another paramedic from Syracuse, N.Y.

Courson identified the two South Africans in the group as Peter Hammond and George Bezedenhout. He did not release their ages or home towns.

CERT, a non-profit group, supplies aid to war-torn countries through volunteers. Emergency medical forays usually last about two weeks, and members pay their own transportation and expenses, Courson said.

Courson first received details about the abduction of this group Friday from a contact in South Africa. Hours later, the State Department in Washington confirmed the abduction.

Mozambique, a former Portuguese dependency on the southeastern coast of Africa, has been torn for years by a right-wing insurgency attributed to the 20,000 guerrillas of the Mozambique National Resistance. State Department sources said the region where the abduction took place is notorious for atrocities, generally attributed to MNR rebels.

However, the group was believed to be in the hands of Frelimo forces, Courson said, noting that the ruling party is not on friendly terms with the U.S. government. Their motive in taking the group hostage was unknown.