Fiji retracts claim release of UN peacekeepers imminent

Government says talks to free 45 soldiers taken captive by al-Qaeda affiliated Syrian rebel group are ongoing

Fiji on Wednesday retracted a claim that 45 UN peacekeepers held hostage in the Golan Heights by Syrian al-Nusra Front rebels were about to be released, blaming a communications mix-up.

“I don’t think so… someone has misinterpreted,” government spokesman Dan Gavidi told AFP when asked if posts on official social media feeds on Wednesday morning trumpeting the impending release were correct.

The government later deleted the posts and released a statement saying negotiations with the rebels were continuing.

The government said talks on the issue had been “progressive”.

“We are confident that… this process will secure the safe release of the 45 peacekeeping troops,” it said.

Earlier, the Fijian Ministry of Information had posted a one-line statement on its official Facebook page: “Fijian troops will soon be released. More details to follow.”

The UN has been trying to broker the UN peacekeepers’ release since they were surrounded and taken hostage in late August after Syrian rebels captured a border crossing near the abandoned town of Quneitra. Fighters from the Nusra Front, abducted the Fijian peacekeepers and surrounded two Filipino contingents, who later escaped to Israel.

The UN Security Council council has demanded that all groups abandon areas controlled by the UN peacekeepers and the Quneitra crossing, and return all vehicles, weapons and equipment belonging to the peacekeepers.

Fiji commander Brig. Gen. Mosese Tikoitoga said last week that the Nusra Front has made three demands for the release of the peacekeepers: It wants to be taken off the UN terrorist list; it demands that humanitarian aid be delivered to parts of the Syrian capital of Damascus; and it calls for compensation for three of its fighters who, it claims, were killed in a shootout with UN officers.

The Nusra Front accused the UN of doing nothing to help the Syrian people since the uprising against President Bashar Assad began in March 2011. It said the Fijians were seized in retaliation for the UN’s ignoring “the daily shedding of the Muslims’ blood in Syria” and even colluding with Assad’s army “to facilitate its movement to strike the vulnerable Muslims” through a buffer zone in the Golan Heights.

Last week, the group threatened to try the peacekeepers according to Sharia law.

The Fijians are part of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which has been stationed in the Golan Heights since 1974 to monitor a ceasefire between Israel and Syria, following intensified firing on the border after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967, and Syria has campaigned for decades for return of the land. For nearly four decades, the UN monitors helped enforce a stable truce between Israel and Syria, but the Golan Heights has increasingly become a battlefield in the more than three-year-old Syrian conflict.

The mission currently has troops from six countries: Fiji, India, Ireland, Nepal, Netherlands and the Philippines.

In June, the Security Council extended the mission’s mandate for another six months, until 31 December 2014, the UN said.

A number of countries have withdrawn their peacekeepers due to the escalating violence.