British couple Paul and Rachel Chandler are being held hostage by pirates for a ransom of $7 million. They were taken from their yacht on their way to Tanzania from the Seychelles Islands located in the Indian Ocean near East Africa. The Chandlers have been held by the pirates for more than 100 days, but have been allowed intermittent contact with journalists. In their latest contact, Rachel informed the journalists that she “had not seen her husband for two weeks since they were violently separated.” She pleaded for help and was assured by the pirates that she and her husband would only have a few days left to live if no money was received.
As desperate as thesituation is, the policy of Great Britain prohibits the government from paying these types of ransoms and it has refused to pay the $7 million.
Unfortunately, Rachel’s own words give us a glimpse of this awful situation: ‘”It’s hard not to feel, well, dying would actually be an easy way out. It’s hard to explain but it is when you’re all on your own in this country and you’ve no idea where you are and no idea when something might happen and whether I’ll see Paul again. It’s just very, very despairing.”
Read more at CNN/World.
Comentarios