The Minister for Internal Security, Peter Tsiamalili has come out to clarify the events that occurred to secure the safe release of the hostages in the Southern Highlands.
Tsiamalili stated that neither himself nor the Prime Minister were engaged directly with the Terrorists, as to the terms of the release or the ransom amount that was requested.
“Negotiations were deliberately undertaken by third parties, through an agreed operational strategy, as to not compromise the State position on law enforcement”, Tsiamalili said.
The Minister added that families of the hostages and other parties were involved in the negotiations and a total sum of K100, 000 was rounded up to assist with intelligence gathering and support for negotiators who worked towards the safe release of the hostages.
“This is by far, as far as the country is concerned, an act of full-on terrorism.”
The Minister has reassured that they had the intention to negotiate to secure a positive outcome even though the National Security Forces had the capability and capacity to intervene but acted upon the decision by the Commissioner for Police was to pursue a negotiated outcome, to which he fully supported.
He went on to add that clear, concise, and effective communication with both the captors and hostages was critical, however, language barriers impeded this process.
“Given this, a decision based on Operational Requirements were made to engage a third party to deliver messages and confirm requirements for the safe delivery of the captives.”
“Throughout the ordeal, consultation with stakeholders occurred to determine how best to approach negotiations based on the intelligence at hand to navigate and secure the release of the hostages with minimum harm.”