DUSHANBE, March 1, 2011, Asia-Plus — Tajik national Homidjon Ochilboyev, a doctor at a hospital in Yemen’s Shabwa province, was abducted by unknown persons on February 28, Tajik Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Abdullo Yuldoshev told Asia-Plus by phone on Tuesday.
“We confirm this information, released by some international media outlets on March 1, on the basis of a telephone conversation with representatives of Russian companies working in Yemen,” Tajik diplomat said.
“According to information received, Ochilboyev today morning, at around 10:20 am contacted Saidahmad Bekov, a manager with the Russian company Tekhnostroyeksport in Yemen, by phone and told him that he was taken hostage in the early hours of Monday (February 28) and he is currently being held in the mountain area. According to him, the kidnapers are not treating him badly. As of 3:00 pm of Tajik time, the kidnappers did not lay down conditions for release of Ochilboyev,” Ambassador Yuldoshev said.
He noted the Russian company Tekhnostroyeksport and Russia’s Consulate in San’a had sent appropriate notes to Yemen’s Ministry of Health and Foreign Ministry. “Tajik Embassy in Riyadh has also sent an appropriate note to the Yemeni Embassy here,” Yuldoshev added.
Tajik doctor Homidjon Ochilboyev, 60, has worked in Yemen since 2007.
In the meantime, some agencies have erroneously identified Homidjon Ochilboyev as Russian or Uzbek. Thus, Reuters reports that tribal sources told Reuters on Tuesday that armed tribesmen kidnapped an Uzbek doctor in Yemen, demanding the government hold accountable those responsible for an air strike on their city years ago.
Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reports that according to Bekov, Ochilov said that the kidnappers told him that they have to resolve some problems with the government and needed him as a hostage.
Bekov said there are three Russian companies that provide medical care in Yemen: Tekhnostroyeksport, Eksportstroy, and Zdraveksport. He said the companies employ at least 47 doctors from Tajikistan and dozens of translators and other workers.
Bekov said Ochilov was the second Tajik physician to be abducted by armed rebels in Yemen, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reported. In the first case — some three or four years ago — a doctor was transported to a remote village to treat a wounded rebel commander before being returned to his home unhurt.
