News of hostages awaited by Berne group

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32406, 19 September 1970, Page 17

News of hostages awaited by Berne group

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) BERNE, September 18. The five nations affected by the Jordan hijackings today faced another day of frustrated waiting in Berne for news of the 54 hostages, as more heavy fighting was reported in Amman.

The five nations— Switzerland, Britain, West Germany, the United States and Israel —have set up a co-ordin-ating group for negotiations with the Palestinian commandos holding the 54 citizens of these countries as hostages in Jordan. The fighting in Jordan meant that the group faced new delays in their wait for

clarification of the conditions which the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (P.F.L.P.) have set for the release of the hostages. The P.F.L.P. are detaining the hostages from the three airliners which they hijacked to Jordan last week and later blew up. But the fierce show-down between guerrillas and Jordanian Government troops in Amman cut off communication yesterday between the P.F.L.P. and the Berne group. (The guerrillas’ central

committee said last night all possible steps had been taken to protect the hostages but added: “The Jordanians’ indiscriminate shelling threatens the lives of the hostages as much as it does the lives of the citizens of Amman.”) The International Red Cross Committee (1.C.R.C.), which is acting as intermediafy between the five countries and the commandos, said it was out of contact with its Amman delegates for the whole of yesterday.

A spokesman for the I.C.R.C. at Geneva headquarters said that it had no idea where the hostages were being kept. The key question awaiting; clarification is that of the exact number of commandos whose release the P.F.L.P. is demanding of Israel as part of a package deal in exchange for the Israelis and Americans among the hostages. The co-ordinating group has said it will consider only a settlement involving the release of all the hostages without distinction, but Israel has publicly rejected the latest conditions of the P.F.L.P. Switzerland, Britain and West Germany have already declared their readiness to meet the Palestinian conditions by releasing Palestinians detained in their countries, and observers said that Israel was under some pressure to adopt a more flexible attitude.