Commandos seize embassy, hold ambassador hostage

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33453, 7 February 1974, Page 14

Commandos seize embassy, hold ambassador hostage

(.V .Z.P.A.-Reute r— C opy right) KUWAIT, February 6. Members of the Japanese Red Army and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine today seized the Japanese Embassy in Kuwait, and threatened to kill the Japanese Ambassador and embassy staff one by one if their demands were not met.

They demanded thatji i the .Japanese Govern-!’ men I announce wit hin J lone hour that it would < send an aircraft top Singapore to pick up and !i transport to Kuwait the;, ; lour fellow-guerrillas[ t i who have been adrift [i with three hostages, . [aboard a hi jacked ferry- , boat in Singapore hat- < hour for the last week, ' after an unsuccessful ! attempt to blow up an ! oil refinery there. One of the guerrillas in [ [Kuwait was asked by a Reu-i, [ters correspondent in a telephone call to the embassy iwhat would happen if the i [Japanese Government failed [ Ito meet the demands by the [group. [ “We will kill the ambassa- | i dor,” was the reply. “We will [kill the secretaries — we will [kill everyone here." The Japanese Ambassador [(Mr Ryoko Ishikawa) and [ ■ several of his staff were [taken hostage by the group. ; I In a further telephone call, one of the commandos told Reuters that the Kuwaiti ■ Government should not interfere. “The Government must withdraw all its forces from ■ around the building, or the hostages will be shot,” he (said. “We are ready to throw done of them out of the winjdow to prove we are seri;ous.” The Kuwaiti Foreign Min- , ister (Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed) was then holding ’ emergency talks with aides in his office only a few hundred yards, from the embassy. The Japanese Government [ announced first in Tokyo’

I that it had received a cabled; | message from the group giv- ’ [ing it one hour to comply ; [with the demand, on penalty 1 [of the execution of the first ; i hostage, a second secretary i lat the embassy. |< The Japanese Foreign Ministry announced a few' [minutes later that the guer- 1 [rillas’ demand would be met.;’ i The Japanese Foreign Min- [i ’ ister (Mr Masayoshi Ohira) i told a hurriedly-called press . conference that the Govern- , merit was ready to send an | airliner to Singapore to trans-1 port the guerrillas, and had I 1 also asked Kuwait to convey > I the decision to those occupy-; ing the embassy. I Mr Ohira added that the [incident was very regrettable, because on February 2 the Japanese Government had alerted its embassies and ■ Japanese private companies to take special precautions: after the Singapore oil refin- [ ery incident. The hostages in the Kuwait ■ Embassy include Mr Ishi-i kawa, aged 56; the first sec-1 [ retary, Mr Koichi Kimura, aged 53; the second secretary, Mr Ryosuke Ito, aged 32; the third secretary, Mr Askira Sugitnura, aged 44; the attache, Mr Shuhei Wada, i aged 28; and Mr Miwako ■ Yaegaki, a member of the ■. [staff.

The guerrillas in Singapore who have been holding threi people hostage aboard : ferry-boat for the last week yesterday asked North Kore< to help to arrange their saf( conduct out of Singapore. Believed to be two Japan ese and two Arabs, they seized the ferry after tryint unsuccessfully to blow uj

~storage tanks at a Singapore tloil refinery. 11 The Singapore Government yesterday made an offer to i the guerrillas, saying that ! they could take refuge in any foreign mission while plans . were made for their eventual , departure by air to a country of their choice. The guerI'rillas have said that they > I want to go to an Arab State.