U.N. seeks helps in freeing kidnapped Fijian peacekeepers

UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council called Wednesday on "countries with influence" to press al Qaeda-linked insurgents to release 45 U.N. peacekeepers from Fiji abducted last week in the Golan Heights.

A press statement approved by all 15 council members after a briefing by U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous again demanded the immediate and unconditional release of the Fijian peacekeepers.

Heavy clashes have raged in the Golan Heights since Syrian rebels captured a border crossing between Syria and Israel near the abandoned town of Quneitra last Wednesday. Fighters from al Qaeda's Syria branch, the Nusra Front, abducted the Fijian peacekeepers and surrounded two Filipino contingents serving in the U.N. force known as UNDOF the following day.

Under cover of darkness, the 40 abducted Filipino peacekeepers made a daring escape after being surrounded and under fire for seven hours, Philippine officials said over the weekend.

"We may call it the greatest escape," Philippine military chief Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang said.

The Security Council welcomed the news that all the Filipinos were safe and commended the U.N. peacekeeping mission's quick reaction force for its assistance.

Ladsous told reporters the peacekeepers have shown "steadfastness and courage" and said the U.N. is working to obtain the immediate, safe and unconditional release of the Fijians.

"We are sparing no effort to obtain the release of the detained peacekeepers," he said, but gave no details stressing the importance of "discretion."

U.N. diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations, said the Nusra Front has made a series of demands, including being taken off the U.N. blacklist of terrorist organizations subject to sanctions.

The Nusra Front accused the U.N. of doing nothing to help the Syrian people since the uprising against President Bashar Assad began in March 2011. It said the Fijians were seized in retaliation for the U.N.'s ignoring "the daily shedding of the Muslims' blood in Syria" and even colluding with Assad's army "to facilitate its movement to strike the vulnerable Muslims" through a buffer zone in the Golan Heights.

UNDOF was established in May 1974 following intensified firing on the Israel-Syria border after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967, and Syria has campaigned for decades for return of the land. For nearly four decades, the U.N. monitors helped enforce a stable truce between Israel and Syria but the Golan Heights has increasingly become a battlefield in the more than three-year-old Syrian conflict.

The council demanded that all groups abandon areas controlled by UNDOF and the Queneitra crossing, and return all vehicles, weapons and equipment belonging to the peacekeepers.

Ladsous said UNDOF has been strengthened with armored equipment and other military hardware.

The council commended the peacekeepers for their bravery in facing the threats and challenges in the volatile area and reiterated its "unconditional support for UNDOF and the vital role it plays in support of the stability in the Golan Heights."