Hijackers release 10 more hostages

Press, 4 October 1977, Page 1

Hijackers release 10 more hostages

NZPA Damascus, Syria

Japanese hijackers released 10 more hostages yesterday after the aircraft they commandeered six days earlier landed at Damascus for refuelling. They then took off for an undisclosed destination.

Two Americans and eight Japanese passengers were released, leaving 12 passenger hostages and the crew of seven still aboard the Japan Airlines DCB jet. The five Japanese Red Army guerrillas were accompanied -by six comrades released from Japanese prisons as part of their ransom demands. The aircraft was surrounded by armed troops immediately after landing at Damascus Airport at 5.28 a.m, It sat in a remote comer of the international airport, about 25 kilometres from the capital. Journalists and photographers were kept away. Airport officials said they did not know where the plane, which arrived at Damascus from Kuwait in the early morning, would fly next. But speculation centred on Libya or South Yemen, two countries that previously have granted asylum to hijackers and terrorists. Algeria was also mentioned. The hijackers summoned the Japanese Ambassador to Syria (Mr Ohtori Kukino) to the airport, apparently for negotiations.

Seven other hostages

were released during a refuelling stop in Kuwait, because they were ill, said the Kuwait Defence Minister (Sheikh Saad Abdullah). They included four Japanese, two Australians and a New Zealander, The Japanese Foreign Ministry said the plane landed at Kuwait without permission from the airport, but Syrian authorities agreed to supply fuel, food and water. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the hijackers took on enough fuel for seven hours of flying and also received food. The Japanese Government paid SUS6M ransom to end the s|-day siege at the airport in Dacca, Bangladesh. After a seven-hour flight from Dacca and more than two hours on the ground at Kuwait, the let took off. Kuwaiti officials at first refused to let the jet land. But Sheikh Saad said the pilot pleaded with authorities that he was low on fuel and his aircraft was

in danger. The pilot also gave assurances that the plane would land only to refuel.

The plane circled the airport for 90 minutes and made seven passes at the airport before Kuwaiti officials agreed to let it land and cleared the runway of trucks parked there to block it.

At Damascus Airport, the 10 released hostages, who appeared very tired and weak, were taken into a lounge where they met United States and Japanese Embassy officials. In Tokyo, the Japanese Prime Minister (Mr Takeo Fukuda) spoke of his “heart-breaking grief’ at having been forced to comply with the demands of the hijackers. In a Parliamentary policy speech, Mr Fukuda said: “The Government decided to comply, in principle, with the hijackers’ unlawful demands to protect the lives of more than 140 people.”