'We didn't pay a penny to have Sharon released from captivity'
Pay-out claims by war crimes suspect denied
Sharon Commins at a reception in her honour at Aras An Uachtarain on Friday
Sunday October 25 2009
The Department of Foreign Affairs, on behalf of the Government, and third-world charity Goal have both categorically denied they paid any ransom to the kidnappers of Irish aid worker Sharon Commins and her Ugandan colleague Hilda Kawuki.
It follows claims by a powerful Arab tribal leader, who played a key role as a linkman between the Sudanese government and the kidnappers, that five million Sudanese pounds (€150,000) was paid to secure the release of the two women.
Musa Hilal who is on a US State Department list of suspected war criminals and was last year appointed special adviser to Sudanese President Oma al-Bashir claimed in a newspaper interview that the kidnappers received the ransom from the Sudan government to release the two women, who were abducted by gunmen more than three months ago.
Last week the Irish, Sudanese and Ugandan governments categorically denied that any money was handed over before Sharon Commins and Hilda Kawuki were freed by their kidnappers last Sunday. But Hilal claimed the abduction of the two women lasted so long because agreement could not be reached on the ransom.
He said that when the Sudanese government initially said they would not allow the payment of a ransom, the kidnappers threatened to take the women to neighbouring Chad and he claimed that he had to persuade them not to move the two women.
"This is the truth. Had I not intervened through these mediators, this situation wouldn't have been sorted out like this. These guys would not have killed the girls, but they would have taken them to Chad or any other place."
Hilal also claimed in the interview that he had convinced the kidnappers to accept the original ransom.
A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs issued a brief statement yesterday saying that the Government had not paid any money to secure the release of the two women, and that they had been assured by the Sudanese government that they had paid no ransom.
Goal CEO John O'Shea said: "I wish to state categorically that Goal did not pay any money to any individual or groups, to secure the release of Hilda and Sharon. We did not pay a penny. There is always a perception, when there is a kidnapping and a release, that a ransom has been paid. That is why I want to state categorically that Goal did not pay a penny ransom. That is all I can say."
And in her interview, a freed Sharon Commins said: "They had no political agenda. It was purely about money, that's all they wanted and that's all they cared about. They would talk about nothing but money. They were extremely poor people trying to make a quick buck."
Ms Commins has made no further detailed account of her kidnapping and her release since.
Musa Hilal, who made the claims that a ransom was paid, is the alleged leader of the Janjaweed, a Sudanese government-backed militia that allegedly carried out attacks in which civilians were massacred and raped.
At the time of Hilal's appointment as a special adviser to the Sudanese president, a US State Department official strongly criticised the decision.
"We deplore the government of Sudan's decision to name him to a senior position. He is under both US and UN sanctions for the role he played in Darfur," Gonzalo Gallegos, a State Department spokesman, said.
- JEROME REILLY
Sunday Independent
