07-23-2004, 08:44 PM
Hostage Crisis: India should learn from British strategy! - B Raman
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->So said Keith Bloomfield, Head of the Counter Terrorism Policy Department at the British Foreign Office, while delivering a speech on the 'The Kidnapping Business' at the Foreign Policy Centre at London on April 10, 2001. After pointing out that since 1997, the British Foreign Office had dealt with 54 kidnap incidents involving over 100 British nationals in Nigeria, Yemen, Sierra Leone, Chechnya, Georgia, Colombia, Somalia, Bangladesh and many others, he explained the British strategy in dealing with an overseas kidnap situation as following:
* Keep in constant and close touch with the families of the hostages and the media and keep explaining the evolving situation to them.
* "Joined-up" thinking and co-ordinated action by all the Government departments and agencies dealing with the situation.
* Have a nodal point in the Foreign Office to deal with all kidnap situations abroad and to ensure co-ordination.The Counter-Terrorism Policy Department (CTPD) of the Foreign Office plays this role.
* Effective liaison with foreign governments, international organisations and non-governmental organisations, which might be able to play a helpful role.
* Have frequent rehearsals of kidnap management even if there are no kidnaps so that all dramatis personae in the Government are aware of their respective roles if there is a kidnap.
* Employ a professional hostage consultant. According to him, the Foreign Office had a former Metropolitan Police negotiator as its hostage consultant. He visited vulnerable countries which expressed an interest in improving their response to kidnaps and spread best practice.
* Provide regular travel advice to British citizens traveling abroad on business or on holiday.
He concluded: "I think it is worth repeating that the safety of the hostages is always paramount in a kidnap situation. This is the first message which we ask our Ambassador or High Commissioner on the spot to pass immediately to the government of any country in which a British national is kidnapped. We also ask him or her to make clear our policies of not making substantive concessions to hostage-takers and not paying ransoms. These are non-negotiable as far as the British government is concerned. Giving in once would reward a serious crime, make it much harder to resist a second time, and would turn many parts of the world into 'no-go' areas for British nationals."
His presentation has some valuable lessons for India
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->So said Keith Bloomfield, Head of the Counter Terrorism Policy Department at the British Foreign Office, while delivering a speech on the 'The Kidnapping Business' at the Foreign Policy Centre at London on April 10, 2001. After pointing out that since 1997, the British Foreign Office had dealt with 54 kidnap incidents involving over 100 British nationals in Nigeria, Yemen, Sierra Leone, Chechnya, Georgia, Colombia, Somalia, Bangladesh and many others, he explained the British strategy in dealing with an overseas kidnap situation as following:
* Keep in constant and close touch with the families of the hostages and the media and keep explaining the evolving situation to them.
* "Joined-up" thinking and co-ordinated action by all the Government departments and agencies dealing with the situation.
* Have a nodal point in the Foreign Office to deal with all kidnap situations abroad and to ensure co-ordination.The Counter-Terrorism Policy Department (CTPD) of the Foreign Office plays this role.
* Effective liaison with foreign governments, international organisations and non-governmental organisations, which might be able to play a helpful role.
* Have frequent rehearsals of kidnap management even if there are no kidnaps so that all dramatis personae in the Government are aware of their respective roles if there is a kidnap.
* Employ a professional hostage consultant. According to him, the Foreign Office had a former Metropolitan Police negotiator as its hostage consultant. He visited vulnerable countries which expressed an interest in improving their response to kidnaps and spread best practice.
* Provide regular travel advice to British citizens traveling abroad on business or on holiday.
He concluded: "I think it is worth repeating that the safety of the hostages is always paramount in a kidnap situation. This is the first message which we ask our Ambassador or High Commissioner on the spot to pass immediately to the government of any country in which a British national is kidnapped. We also ask him or her to make clear our policies of not making substantive concessions to hostage-takers and not paying ransoms. These are non-negotiable as far as the British government is concerned. Giving in once would reward a serious crime, make it much harder to resist a second time, and would turn many parts of the world into 'no-go' areas for British nationals."
His presentation has some valuable lessons for India
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