Beirut, March 27: The fate of seven Estonian nationals kidnapped in the Bekaa Valley remained unknown Thursday as Army and Internal Security Forces scoured lawless areas in a bid to locate their captors.
A security source familiar with the investigation told The Daily Star that forces were refusing to rule out the possibility that the Estonians, who were snatched from outside the town of Zahle Wednesday evening, had been captured by Palestinian militants.
“There is no definite information regarding the kidnappers or the location of the captives but security agencies are dealing with several possibilities. They do not rule out the responsibility of a Palestinian faction linked to the Syrian regime,” the source said.
“Available information indicated the incident had political motives and that the captors are a group of professionals who seem to have planned the operation in advance, watched the victims, kidnapped them and hid them quickly.”
Contacts between Estonian and Lebanese officials continued Thursday, as Tallinn’s Foreign Ministry sent a diplomat to Beirut in a bid to secure the hostages’ safe release.
Estonia’s honorary consul, Samih Qamouh, told The Daily Star that information on the ambush was scarce.
“I am trying to see all people responsible to ask about this issue. I was told that the army is working with all its forces to try to find [the Estonians]. I have no information [about the kidnappers’ identity],” he said.
The seven cyclists were snatched from a road on an industrial area close to Zahle and forced at gunpoint into two dark Mercedes 300s, eyewitnesses said after the kidnapping, which occurred at just after 5:30 p.m. local time.
Caretaker Foreign Minister Ali Shami telephoned his Estonian counterpart, Urmas Paet, to stress “the keenness of the Lebanese government on guaranteeing the safety of the tourists, along with returning them safely back to their country,” according to a ministry statement.
Lebanese Army Commander General Jean Kahwaji briefed President Michel Sleiman on the progress of efforts to find abductees, which included several raids on buildings close to the Syrian border, in the vicinity of a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command base.
Although the group moved Wednesday to distance themselves from the kidnapping, security officials said the crime bore the hallmarks of a coordinated operation. The Estonians had been across the border in Syria only hours before their capture.
The security source added that cell phone records were being examined but had failed to yield any tangible progress by Thursday night.
The Estonian government set up an interdepartmental committee to decide how best to handle the kidnapping.
“Foreign Minister Paet has been in contact with the Lebanese authorities. The Lebanese authorities have confirmed that they will help Estonia in any way possible to resolve this situation,” Estonia’s Foreign Ministry said.
“The Foreign Ministry has been in contact with the families of all the kidnapped citizens. The crisis commission will continue working until the situation is resolved.”
Paet contacted French, Turkish and Italian counterparts as well as EU, NATO and U.N. representatives following the kidnapping, the ministry added. Paet said a motive for the crime was yet to be established and refused to go into details over the missing seven, other than to say that they were all male Estonian citizens.
The website of Estonia’s national broadcaster identified three of the missing individuals as university lecturer Martin Metspalu, cycling enthusiast Andre Pukk and software engineer Jaan Jagomagi.
The kidnapping has sparked fears that Lebanon could return to the situation it witnessed in the 1980s, when scores of foreigners were held hostage by militias and factions seeking financial gain or political leverage. Nearly 100 foreigners, mainly American citizens, were captured by various armed groups between 1982 and 1990.
Zahle MP Elie Marouni warned that the incident could damage Lebanon’s crucial tourism industry.
“What happened was very dangerous, especially regarding its repercussions, which might lead to a decline in the number of tourists and spark fear among foreigners. This will deal a blow to the economy,” he said.
In a thinly veiled reference to Syria, which is suspected of providing support for a number of Palestinian bases straddling the border with Lebanon, Marouni said the kidnapping could have been ordered from Damascus.
“There are several sides that benefit from the deterioration of the situation in Lebanon, such as regional states that want to avert international attention from what is happening in their territories,” he said, in reference to ongoing protests in Syria.
Minyeh MP Ahmad Fatfat said that the kidnapping bore the hallmarks of a pre-planned ambush.
“The method of kidnapping gives an impression that a certain protected network has carried out the operation,” he told Voice of Lebanon radio. “This is a very dangerous scenario because it returns Lebanon back to the 1980s, when Westerners were kidnapped. It is a very dangerous message to Lebanon.”
——–Agencies