WUNRN
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/15/middleeast/syria-italian-hostages/
Italy – Two Young Women Aid Workers Held Hostage in Syria Are Freed
Italian aid workers abducted
in Syria, Greta Ramelli and Vanessa Marzullo, arrive in Rome on January 16,
2015
By Steve Almasy, CNN –
January 16, 2015
(CNN)Two
Italian aid workers held hostage in Syria for almost six months have arrived
back on home soil after being released, the Italian government has announced.
Wearing winter clothes and
carrying rucksacks as they disembarked from the plane that transported them
home, Greta Ramelli and Vanessa Marzullo were greeted on the tarmac in Rome by
officials, including Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni.
Marzullo, 21, and Ramelli,
20, were kidnapped in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo shortly after they
arrived in late July to work on humanitarian aid projects, the state-run ANSA
news agency reported.
A video posted on New Year's
Day showed two young women identified as the hostages dressed in Islamic garb
with only their faces showing. They appeared to be seated against a wall. One
read a brief statement in English, which included: "We are in big danger
and we could be killed."
There were no other details
divulged Thursday about the release.
From: WUNRN LISTSERVE [mailto:wunrn1@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, January 02, 2015 6:34 PM
To: WUNRN ListServe (wunrn_listserve@lists.wunrn.com)
Subject: Italy-Syria - Islamic Militants Release Video of 2 Italian
Female Hostages in Syria
WUNRN
VIDEO OF 2 YOUNG ITALIAN WOMEN HELD HOSTAGE IN SYRIA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzxxpAZtAHE
Photo taken from video.
Italy-Syria - Islamic Militants Release Video of 2 Italian Female Hostages in Syria
Vanessa Marzullo & Greta Ramelli
BEFORE
By Jamie Dettmer & Barbie Latza Nadeau – January 2, 2015
A New Year’s Eve video of the two students, kidnapped in
Syria last August, has officials worried that the women may soon be traded to
ISIS.
A 24-second video
posted online on New Year’s Eve of two young Italian women, who were kidnapped
by Islamic militants in northern Syria last summer, is prompting alarm among
Italian officials who have been negotiating for the pair’s release.
The idealistic aid volunteers Vanessa Marzullo
and Greta Ramelli, both in their 20s, appear considerably thinner and paler and
dressed in black chadors, leaving just their faces and hands uncovered, they
beg in the brief video for the Italian government to get them home.
Uploaded to YouTube with the title “Al Nusra
Front detains two Italian employees because of their government’s participation
in the coalition against it,” the video appears to have been shot in
mid-December. In the video Marzullo is seen holding up a piece of paper that
has “17.12.14 Wednesday” scrawled across it while Ramelli reads a written
statement appealing to the Italian government to get them home quickly.
“We supplicate our government and its
mediators to bring us home before Christmas. We are in big danger and we could
be killed. The government and mediators are responsible for our lives,” she
says.
The Italian foreign ministry has declined to
comment on the video. The foreign ministry would not confirm to The Daily Beast
whether they believe the video is authentic or whether they believe the date is
accurate. The Italian news agency ANSA cited an unnamed intelligence source
saying “we are in a very delicate phase and we ask the maximum discretion at
this time.”
But a Rome-based senior Italian diplomat told
the Daily Beast that the timing of the video’s posting is perplexing officials,
who had thought they were a hair’s breadth away from completing successful negotiations
for the women’s release.
There is rising concern
among officials that the women are at increasing risk of being traded by their
captors to ISIS.
And there is rising concern among officials
that the aid volunteers, who were snatched by gunmen in northern Syria’s Aleppo
province in August, are at increasing risk of being drawn into complicated
jihadist politics in the war-torn country and traded by their captors to the
more powerful Islamic State, formerly known as ISIS—the militant group
responsible for beheading American journalists James Foley and Steve Sotloff
and three Western aid workers, including American Peter Kassig. Italy’s La
Repubblica newspaper has claimed the women have been sold twice already during
their captivity.
“There’s surprise at the captors’ decision to
upload this video now,” said the diplomat, who spoke to The Daily Beast on
condition he not be identified. “Obviously it is meant to put pressure on us
but it may be more connected with the captors need to display their hostage
trophies for reasons of internal jihadist politics and maneuvering.”
The diplomat wouldn’t comment on exactly who
is holding 20-year-old Marzullo and 21-year-old Ramelli.
There have been reports in the Arab press that
the women’s captors are an independent group of Islamic militants connected to
Jabhat al-Nusra, the official al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, but not formally
part of it. And the manner of the release of the video on New Year’s Eve and
the lack of sophistication in its shooting would appear to give some credence
to those claims. The video includes no al-Nusra logos and it has not appeared
on websites associated with the al-Qaeda affiliate nor been promoted on Twitter
accounts used by the militant group.
Hostages in northern Syria have been used
almost as “currency” before, and several released European hostages have talked
about being traded and passed between different militants during their captivity—although
ISIS appears always to trade for Western hostages and never to exchange them
with other militants.
Since the U.S.-led coalition launched
airstrikes against ISIS and two waves of attacks against Jabhat al-Nusra,
jihadist politics and deal-making have shifted and autonomous groups of Islamic
militants have increasingly come under pressure to relinquish their
independence. There have also been signs of efforts to bridge the schism
between al-Nusra and the al-Qaeda breakaway ISIS, which was disavowed by
al-Qaeda’s overall leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, last winter following
disputes over strategy and amid personality clashes.
One of the fears of Italian officials now is
that Marzullo and Ramelli could be traded or used as bargaining chips between
jihadists.
Speaking to reporters in Rome, the Speaker of
Italy’s House of Deputies, Laura Boldrini, characterized the New Year’s Eve
video as an SOS from the pair. “The girls send a cry for help…the situation of
these girls is distressing.”
Salvatore Marzullo, Vanessa’s father said in a
taped statement: “We have seen these images, the first of Vanessa and Greta in
months, they seem ok even in spite of their difficult situation…there aren’t
many words to say now other than that we were glad to see them alive.”
Since the women’s abduction—they were seized
on their second trip into Syria, along with an Italian journalist who managed
to escape—their families have been careful when talking to the media. They have
followed generally the instructions of the Italian foreign ministry to say
little and have confined their comments to explaining why the young women felt
they had to cofound the Hooryaty Project to
deliver medical goods to Syria.
Family members have said they pleaded with the women not
to head to Syria.
When you hear your daughter say, ‘Mom, in that
country they are killing children so I must go and help,’ what can you say?” Antonella
Ramelli, Greta’s mother, wrote on her Facebook page. “Can you change your
daughter who has these values and strong ideals about solidarity and human
empathy? Should you?”
Speaking to a local radio station today
Antonella Ramelli said the video gives her hope. She had feared the girls were
dead. In the wake of the beheading of James Foley, the captives’ families lost
hope that hostage negotiators at the Italian foreign ministry would secure the
girls’ release, with Antonella Ramelli telling reporters that she was “doubly
worried.”
There has been criticism in Italy of the
women’s decision to plunge into freelance aid work in Syria with claims that
neither was well prepared for the complexity and danger of what they would
confront (both are students). Their kidnapping has had a major impact on
Italian NGOs, with the country’s foreign ministry pressuring aid volunteers not
to go to Syria.
Italy has paid to get hostages released in the
past and the Italian hostage negotiators —there is a unit of them in the
foreign ministry—have been successful in getting several Italians held captive
by either al Nusra or ISIS freed. Italy’s president Giorgio Napolitano, who is
approaching retirement, appears determined to get the two freed before he
leaves office.