ADC MEMBER WARNS HOSTAGE TAKING IS NORTHERN MALI'S

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAMAKO 000902 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/20/2018 TAGS: PTER PINS PINR ML SUBJECT: ADC MEMBER WARNS HOSTAGE TAKING IS NORTHERN MALI'S NEW GROWTH INDUSTRY REF: A. BAMAKO 00712 ¶B. BAMAKO 00870 Classified By: Political Officer Aaron Sampson, Embassy Bamako, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 1.(C) On November 19 Kidal Chamber of Commerce president and Tuareg rebel Alliance for Democracy and Change (ADC) member Abdousalam ag Assalat contacted the Embassy from Kidal to say he was in the process of negotiating for the release of the four Malian military officers still held captive by Northern Mali Tuareg Alliance for Change (ATNMC) leader Ibrahim Bahanga. Bahanga reportedly refused to release the remaining four officers because he believes they were implicated in the April 10 murder of two Tuaregs in Kidal. Ag Assalat has negotiated the release of Malian hostages before (Ref. A) and recently claimed that he refused a request from an Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) intermediary to help negotiate the release of the two Austrian tourists kidnapped by AQIM in February 2008 (Ref. B). Ag Assalat told the Embassy that the liberation of Bahanga's four Malian prisoners was "imminent, god willing." 2.(C) Ag Assalat also warned of a "growing danger" to non-American westerners in northern Mali. He said that following the October 31 liberation of the two Austrian tourists, AQIM began actively encouraging traffickers in northern Mali to kidnap non-American westerners. Ag Assalat said the terrorist group was offering to pay as much as 3 million Algerian dinars (roughly USD 45,000) for any captured westerner. Ag Assalat said the AQIM directive specified that the terrorist group was not interested in American hostages, presumably because the USG does not make ransom payments. MILOVANOVIC