DUSHANBE, March 4, 2011, Asia-Plus — Russia’ news agency reported on March 3 that the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Thursday that the Russian Foreign Ministry has sent a diplomatic note to Yemen asking for assistance in freeing a Tajik citizen kidnapped in the country. The Russian news agency identified him as Khomiddin Ocheldiyev, while Tajik Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Abdullo Yuldoshev told Asia-Plus on March 1 that his name is Homidjon Ochilboyev.
Lukashevich said the kidnapping was “carried out by local tribes and did not have any political context.” The Yemeni Health Ministry has already been negotiating with kidnappers on Ocheldiyev’s release, the Russian diplomat said, quoting representatives from Tekhnostroyeksport, for which Tajik doctor worked.
We will recall Tajik national Homidjon Ochilboyev, a doctor at a hospital in Yemen’s Shabwa province, was abducted by unknown armed persons on February 28.
Tajik Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Abdullo Yuldoshev told Asia-Plus on March 1 by phone that “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.”
Homidjon Ochilboyev, 60, has worked in Yemen since 2007.
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, Ochilboyev 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 Ochilboyev 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.
In the meantime, Radio Liberty’s Uzbek Service (Ozodlik) reported on March 2 that Homidjon Ochilboyev is ethnic Uzbek. According to the doctor, “the kidnappers are treating him very badly.” He suspects new doctors that have recently come to work with their hospital of organizing his abduction.
