Post date: Jan 20, 2013 12:50:59 PM
Japan government says it has received "grim information" about citizens possibly killed during a hostage situation in Algeria as JGC Corp is still unable to contact 10 Japanese and 7 non-Japanese staff.
TOKYO, JAPAN (JANUARY 20, 2013) (TV TOKYO) - Japan's government said that it had received "grim information" about its citizens on Sunday(January 20) as JGC Corp was concerned their remaining 17 missing staff were among those killed during a hostage takeover and rescue attempt at a gas field in Algeria.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke with Algeria's Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal in the early hours of Sunday."According to what we have heard from the Algerian government, there is indeed grim information about our citizens. I myself talked over the phone with Algerian Prime Minister (Abdelmalek) Sellal last night and both directly exchanged information about our citizens while asking for him to make all efforts towards confirming the status of our nationals," Abe said at a meeting of relevant cabinet ministers to deal with the Algerian crisis.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga explained that the information received from theAlgerian government did indeed point to Japanese casualties during the rescue operations.
"We have indeed received grim information. The contents of that information was that some of our citizens are either dead or have yet to be confirmed alive," Suga said although noting that the Japanese government had not independently confirmed the information.
Japanese engineering company JGC said that while it had newly confirmed the safety of 41 of its Algerian staff, it was still unable to contact 10 Japanese and 7 non-Japanese staff.
"There are still 10 Japanese and 7 foreign staff for a total of 17 staff who have yet to be confirmed safe. As such, we are taking the government announcement that there were multiple Japanese killed extremely serious," JGC Corporation Public Relations Department Manager Takeshi Endo said.
The Algerian government said the siege ended Saturday with 23 hostages dead, although an Algerian interior ministry statement on the death toll gave no breakdown of the number of foreign hostages killed since the plant was seized on Wednesday (January 16).
"Judging from the information that we have received both from the government and from our office in Algeria, we understand that this is indeed a grim situation. But we will continue to do everything in our power towards confirming the safety of our staff," Endo said.
Details are only slowly emerging on what happened during the siege, which marked a serious escalation of unrest in northwestern Africa, where French forces are ratcheting up a war against Islamist militants in neighbouring Mali.