Yemen government soldiers are on patrol in northern Saada province. A group of nine foreigners including a South Korean teacher, identified by her surname Eom, were kidnapped late last week and they are feared to be dead.
/ Yonhap |
By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter With AP
A 34-year-old South Korean woman was confirmed dead together with the other eight foreigners, including three children.
AP reported that the nine foreigners, including seven German nationals, a Briton and a South Korean, disappeared last week while on a picnic in the restive northern Saada region of Yemen.
No organization claimed responsibility for either kidnapping or killing.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, announced the discovery of the remaining six bodies Monday after three others were found earlier in the day.
Yemen, the poorest nation in the Middle East, is home to restive tribes, a Shiite rebellion, as well as a division of al-Qaida which operates in its remote regions and has often targeted foreigners.
According to the Korean embassy in Yemen, the Korean aid worker, identified as Eom, and the others were working for Worldwide Service, an international NGO for medical volunteer services
Eom lived with her 63-year-old father and 31-year-old sister in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. Her mother is said to have passed away five years ago. She has been living in Saada Province since last August and was doing medical volunteer work. She is reported to have worked with Korean doctors at the hospital and tutored their children.
In a recent phone conversation with her sister, Eom said she planned to return to Korea in August. A total of eight Koreans including Eom, four Korean doctors and their families, were staying in the Saada area.
Worldwide Service, of which Eom is a member, was launched in 1972 by a Dutch doctor couple who provided medical aid in Yemen.
It became an official NGO based in the Netherlands in 1989. Mostly comprising of Europeans, the organization's members include Eom and four Korean doctors. About 30 members belonging to Worldwide Service are working in Saada's Republican Hospital and other facilities.
The state-operated hospital functioned like a public health center and mostly treated patients free of charge.
She had overseas volunteer experience through a religious organization before going to Saada in last August. Her application for official membership with Worldwide Service was approved, and she has since worked as part of the group.
The killing of hostages is not common in Yemen, where tribesmen often kidnap foreigners to press the government on a range of demands, including a ransom, but usually release them unharmed.
A tribal leader in the area, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for the same reason as the security official, blamed al-Qaida for the Friday abduction and the killing.
In March, four South Korean tourists in Yemen died in an apparent suicide bombing blamed on al-Qaida.
Earlier, the Yemeni government had accused a local Saada rebel group, led by Abdel Malak al-Hawthi, but the group issued a statement saying it has not been involved in any abductions of foreigners.
Thousands of people have been killed in Saada, which lies near the border with Saudi Arabia, since a Shiite rebellion erupted there in June 2004. The rebels say the government is corrupt and too closely allied with the West. The rebels negotiated a fragile cease-fire with the government last year, but serious tension remains
Yemen, the ancestral homeland of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, had long been a haven for Islamic militants and was the scene of the October 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors.
Yemen is also the Arab world's poorest nation ― and one of its most unstable ― making it fertile territory for al-Qaida to set up camp.
----Reported by Staff Reporter Lee Hyo-won
hyowlee@koreatimes.co.kr
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