Abducted Japanese freed in Yemen, hopes to continue work there+

SANAA, Nov. 24 Kyodo -
A Japanese engineer kidnapped earlier this month by armed tribesmen in Yemen
said the day after being freed that he wants to complete his assignment in the
country after returning to Japan for a brief rest.

''I felt uneasy but I didn't think my life was in danger,'' Takeo Mashimo, 63,
said during a press conference held Tuesday at the Japanese Embassy in Sanaa.
While expressing hope to have some time off in Japan, he also said he wants to
engage in a school construction project ''until its end.''
Mashimo was seized near the capital on Nov. 15 along with his Yemeni driver as
they were traveling to the site of a school being constructed as part of a
Japanese government-funded aid project in the town of Arhab, several dozen
kilometers north of Sanaa.
There were six armed men when he was captured and they later took him to three
different locations before finally releasing him on Monday evening, according
to Mashimo.
Earlier, Mashimo told Kyodo News over the phone immediately after his release,
''I am very happy that I have been released safely...please tell my family that
I am okay.''
''At the beginning of my abduction, I felt very frightened as I was surrounded
by many people armed with automatic rifles,'' he said. ''But as the days
passed, I kept my cool.''
''As I was kept inside the house where I was detained, it was really tough,''
Mashimo said of his eight days in captivity.
Later in the day, Mashimo arrived at the Sanaa governor's office escorted by a
long convoy of vehicles carrying scores of armed tribesmen from Arhab after
tough negotiations between chieftains and the kidnappers.
The kidnappers had demanded the release of a 22-year-old male relative, who has
been detained without trial for four years, in exchange for the two.
''We have given them our word that we will support their case and press the
government to either put on trial or release their relative,'' an Arhab tribal
leader who took part in the mediation efforts told Kyodo outside the governor's
office.
''During the negotiations, the kidnappers were arguing about which one should
be freed first -- me or their relative,'' Mashimo said. He added he was
surprised to hear his abductors say they were ready to ''start a war with the
government by all means.''
The relative reportedly has a history of involvement in the armed struggle
against the United States in Iraq and is suspected by the Yemeni Interior
Ministry of having links to the al-Qaida terrorist network.
Mashimo, an employee of Tokyo-based consultancy Mohri, Architect & Associates
Inc., has been living in Sanaa for more than a year working on a Japan
International Cooperation Agency project to build schools in Yemen, and
reported the incident himself to the Japanese Embassy by cellphone.
In Tokyo on Tuesday, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama thanked the Yemeni
government and local tribal leaders for their efforts to release Mashimo.
''It took time but it was very good that he was released as a result of
persuasion by the Yemeni government and tribal people,'' Hatoyama said.
Mashimo's wife, Kyoko, 63, told reporters in Tokyo, ''I was relieved that he
looked good. I want to have him drink alcohol and eat sashimi, his favorite
food.''
His release had been reported last Tuesday but negotiations mediated by tribal
leaders became difficult in the final stages, with the kidnappers demanding
that their relative be released first.
''We are sorry for the discomfort caused to Mr. Mashimo...What happened was a
mistake made by a small group of the Arhab tribes, but they wanted to correct
this mistake,'' Sanaa Gov. Nouman Dwaid said.
The abduction case was the second in Yemen involving Japanese nationals in the
past two years.
In May last year, armed tribesmen abducted two female Japanese tourists near
Marib. The two were released unharmed the next day after local tribal leaders
negotiated with their abductors.
In contrast to kidnapping cases involving militants, kidnappings of foreigners
by Yemeni tribesmen are usually aimed at wresting concessions from the
government. The captors usually release their hostages unharmed after attaining
their objectives.
Three German women from a party of nine kidnapped foreigners were found dead in
June amid a recent rise in conflicts between the military and Shiite militia in
the country's north. The six other kidnapped foreigners were four Germans, one
Briton and one South Korean.
==Kyodo