Kidnapped Slovak freed in Northern Caucasus (Prague Watchdog) - Slovak student and aid worker Miriam Yevikova, who was kidnapped in the Northern Caucasus in early June, has been freed, a well-informed source told Prague Watchdog this evening.
Yevikova is now staying with the Federal Security Service (FSB) in Ingushetia, and has phoned her mother as well as representatives of the Slovak Foreign Ministry. More information is not known at present.
Yevikova, a student at Charles University in Prague, worked for the Prague-based Organisation for Aid to Refugees (OPU) in the Czech Republic. In late May, she spent a few days in the southern Russian town of Pyatigorsk; from her hotel she phoned friends in Nazran, asking them to meet her at the Ossetian-Ingush border. However, she did not show up there at the appointed time.
Soon after, however, OPU received a ransom request for one million dollars, a sum this small NGO was unable to pay.
Miriam Yevikova had made several visits to the Northern Caucasus. In the Czech Republic she was mainly concerned with the problems of Chechen refugees and wrote articles for one of the Czech newspapers. (T/E) RELATED ARTICLES:
· Young Slovak reported missing in Northern Caucasus (PW, June 9, 2004)
· Please help us find Miriam Jevikova (OPU, June 18, 2004)
DISCUSSION FORUM
|
