I was not ill-treated, says released UN official

A United Nations staff member just freed from captivity has said that although the conditions of his captivity were harsh he was not ill-treated.

Rolf Helmrich, a 60-year-old German national, who is a member of the UN field security team serving in the country, was abducted on 29 January, at a point about 45 km north of the Lower Juba regional capital, Kismayo, by unknown gunmen. He was released on Saturday night and flown to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, the following day.

Speaking to the press on Tuesday at the UNDP Somalia offices, Helmrich said the worst part of his abduction had been "the actual hostage taking", during which weapons were brandished and shots fired. However, "I was not mistreated by the hostage takers, in fact towards the end they wanted me as their commander," he said, tongue in cheek.

Helmrich said he had been held in the bush near the town of Jilib, some 180 km north of Kismayo, by between 11 and 14 militiamen. He was given a can of tuna in vegetable oil for meals every day for the 10 days in captivity. "You'll have to make a new recipe to make me eat tuna ever again," he said.

He noted that he did not know why he had been abducted. "I have a feeling that money was demanded, but I don't know for sure," he said.

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Somalia, Maxwell Gaylard, said UN policy was not to pay ransoms. He also noted that all UN international staff - less than a dozen - in southern Somalia had been withdrawn. "Danger is always there, we need to check our procedures and decide on the changing of procedures."

Helmrich is the latest of several aid workers to have been abducted by freelance militias allied to one faction or another over the past few years. The militias have usually demanded a ransom before releasing their captives.