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DATE=10/15/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=GEORGIA -- U-N HOSTAGES (L-UPDATE)
NUMBER=2-255073
BYLINE=EVE CONANT
DATELINE=MOSCOW
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO:  Georgian officials say gunmen have released 
two U-N military observers and their translator who 
had been kidnapped while visiting a remote village in 
the breakaway Abkhazia region on Wednesday. V-O-A 
Moscow correspondent Eve Conant reports U-N observer 
mission officials in Georgia say they did not pay any 
ransom to the kidnappers.
TEXT:  A Georgian Interior Ministry spokesperson says 
kidnappers have released the three United Nations 
employees but would not say under what conditions the 
hostages were freed.
Political affairs officer for the U-N observer mission 
in Georgia, Vesselin Kostov, says the released 
hostages are said to be in good health.
            /// ACT KOSTOV ///
      We were told that they are feeling reasonably 
      well. There is no harm done to them. They 
      haven't been treated badly. They are very tired 
      of course, but they are happy that everything is 
      over.
            /// END ACT ///
The team of six military observers and a translator 
was kidnapped by unidentified gunmen while trying to 
deliver aid to a Georgian-controlled village in 
Abkhazia Wednesday. The gunmen later released four of 
the hostages, but demanded security guarantees and 
several hundred thousand dollars ransom for the 
remaining three.
Mr. Kostov says the Georgian government was 
responsible for negotiations and that the United 
Nations did not pay any ransom.
            /// SECOND ACT KOSTOV ///
      To the best of my knowledge, no ransom was paid. 
      At least the United Nations hasn't paid any 
      ransom. As far as conditions under which 
      negotiations were conducted and what kind of 
      guarantees, if any, the Georgian government has 
      given the hostage takers, I do not know.
            /// END ACT ///
The United Nations military observers are part of a 
100-strong force monitoring a cease-fire between 
Georgian forces and Abkhazian separatists. (Signed)
NEB/EC/GE/JO
15-Oct-1999 10:18 AM EDT (15-Oct-1999 1418 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.