Seshnee Govender
17 August 2007
The search continues for four South Africans who went missing in Iraq last December, says the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Andre Durant, Johan Enslin, Kallie Scheepers and Hardus Greeff went missing last year when they were flagged down at a roadblock north of the Iraqi capital, Bagdad.
"The situation is that we are working urgently … with the company that recruited them," Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad told journalists in Pretoria on Wednesday.
However, Pahad said, the company the four men worked for, SafeNet Security Services, which is contracted by the US Department of Defence, had not been able to make progress.
"So we are continuing through the various channels to try to see whether we can bring about a resolution to the problem,"
While South Africa does not have a diplomatic mission in Iraq, it does have ambassadors in neighbouring countries.
"Our ambassador [Boy Geldenhuys] in Jordan, where many of the top Iraqis are gathered, is in contact with them to see whether, through them, we can raise the matter with any relevant people," Pahad said.
"Our ambassador in Kuwait [Ashraf Suliman] is also trying to signal to the Iraqis if they can give us some information, and, finally, we are keeping in touch with our government on this matter."
The number of South Africans in Iraq continued to be of concern to the government, Pahad added. "We have no representation in Iraq, and our consultations with other governments have not been able to determine how many South Africans are there. Our scientific reports indicate that they go up to the ranges of 10 000.
"The only thing I can confirm is that there are many South Africans in Iraq … for defence purposes."
SA condemns suicide bombings
The South African government has condemned the recent suicide bombings in northern Iraq, which killed 175 members of the Yazidi religious sect and wounded 200
others.
"These barbaric terrorist attacks against innocent civilians cannot be justified, no matter the cause," Pahad said.
The fuel tanker attacks took place on Tuesday in two residential areas near the town of Qahataniya, 120km west of Mosul, Ghanim Riyadh, according to a local police captain.
In a second incident in the same city, one policeman was killed and eight others, five of them civilians, were wounded when a police patrol was attacked by a car bomber.
Elsewhere in Iraq, scores of armed men wearing uniform stormed an Iraqi oil ministry compound and abducted a deputy oil minister and four other officials.
Abdel Jabar al Wagaa, senior assistant to Hussain al-Sharistani, Iraq's oil minister, was attacked by at least 50 men wearing security service uniforms.
An interior ministry official in the State Oil Marketing Organisation and three directors-general in the operation were also abducted.
Source: BuaNews
