Fate of Moldovan crew captured by Taliban militants still unclear

17:29 | 04.12.2015 Category: Social

Chisinau, 4 December /MOLDPRES/- The fate of the three Moldovan citizens on board the Moldovan helicopter downed by Taliban soldiers in Afghanistan more than a week ago, is still unclear.

According to the Foreign and European Integration Ministry, members of the crisis cell in charge of managing the situation of the Moldovan crew captured by Taliban soldiers, will hold a meeting next days.

At the same time, representatives of Moldova’s Civil Aviation Authority own new information, however, “it should be kept secret to avoid prejudicing negotiations on recovering the Moldovan prisoners”.

Acting Prime Minister Gheorghe Brega after the cabinet meeting this week confirmed the existence of new information on the fate of the three Moldovan citizens. Nevertheless, he avoided giving any other details, emphasizing that state authorities “keep the situation under control”.

The official said “there is new data and things are getting better. Usually, the settlement of kidnapping cases lasts for months, therefore, we should not speed things up. We keep the situation under control”.

A helicopter owned by a Moldovan private company was downed and captured by Taliban soldiers in Fayrab province, Afghanistan, on 24 November 2015. There were 21 people on board, among which three Moldovan citizens, members of the crew. Afghan special rescue forces found four dead bodies on spot. It was lately confirmed that one of them was Moldovan. So far, there is no information on the fate of the other 17 captured persons.

Following this case, Moldovan authorities created a crisis cell within the Foreign and European Integration Ministry, in charge of managing the situation, and asked Moldova’s Permanent Mission to UN, Moldovan embassies to more countries in the region (Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kirghistan, Uzbekistan and Russia), as well as NATO to provide information on the fate of the three Moldovan citizens captured by Taliban soldiers in Afghanistan.

(Reporter A. Plitoc, Editor L. Alcaza)

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