Johannesburg - Yolande Korkie went to bed on Friday night believing her husband Pierre might be home for Christmas from his long captivity by al-Qaeda terrorists in Yemen. About an hour later, she was woken to be told by the US embassy and the South African government he had been killed during a raid by US special forces to rescue another hostage, US journalist Luke Somers.
The Gift of the Givers Foundation, which brokered Yolande’s release in January, had lost a desperate race against time to get Pierre out of Yemen before the US forces launched their effort to save Somers whom they expected to be executed.
Were it not for the raid, Pierre was to have been released on Sunday, Imtiaz Sooliman, the head of the foundation, said on Saturday.
He told a press conference that on Wednesday he had told Yolande, who lives in Bloemfontein with her two children, that “Pierre will be home for Christmas”. At 05.59am on Saturday he texted her to say “the wait is almost over”.
Yolande had been awake almost all night because of the anxiety of waiting to see if the deal which Sooliman’s Yemeni representative Anas al-Hamati and tribal intermediaries had negotiated would actually hold.
Sooliman said Korkie’s death had been “heartbreaking”.
“It’s totally heartbreaking. For me, for Yolande, especially since we know he was going to be released tomorrow,” said Sooliman.
“We are not calling (the US) responsible for what happened,” he said of the US Special Forces.
Sooliman said he had told his Yemeni office manager al-Hamati that Korkie would likely be killed if the US attacked al-Qaeda.
“I had a premonition this was going to happen. I told Anas we need to move fast. I told him the Americans would likely attack to free their citizen,” he told the Sunday Independent on Saturday.
“Al-Qaeda gave the Americans a deadline. They said they would behead the hostage (Somers).”
Gift of the Givers said a number of hostages were held in the al-Qaeda compound where Korkie was being detained.
US President Barack Obama said in a statement he had authorised the rescue mission.
Obama said a few days ago Somers’s captors had released a video saying Somers would be killed within 72 hours.
“As soon as there was reliable intelligence and an operational plan, I authorised a rescue attempt on Saturday. I also authorised the rescue of any other hostages held in the same location as Luke,” said Obama.
Pierre and Yolande were captured last May in the southern Yemeni city of Taiz, where they were doing charity work. In January this year, the Gift of the Givers managed to secure Yolande’s release. But al-Qaeda kept Pierre, threatening to kill himif they didn’t get a $3 million (R34m)ransom.
The Gift of the Givers entered into negotiations to try to persuade Pierre’s captors to release him without a ransom, telling them it was an impossible amount for South Africans to raise. Yesterday Sooliman said that on November 26 Al-Qaeda had finally agreed to release him for a fee of $200 000 which would cover their costs.
He said he believed Al-Qaeda had also been persuaded by the extensive development work the Gift of the Givers had meanwhile done in Yemen, including building many wells in rural areas.
Sooliman said a team of Abyan tribal leaders had met in Aden, Yemen, this week and were making the final security and logistical preparations for releasing Pierre.
The plan was to fly him central Yemen where he was being held by private jet to the capital Sa’ana and then to Istanbul, Turkey, where Yolande would meet him.
He would then be flown to South Africa and taken directly to hospital for medical evaluation and appropriate treatment. He was believed to be very ill.
But then Sooliman got a call from a South Africa police investigator to say a diplomat from the US embassy in Pretoria had contacted him and Yolande to say both Pierre and Somers had been killed.
Sooliman said he believed Korkie was dead, based on photographic evidence which the US embassy said it had, although final confirmation would come after DNA and fingerprint forensic tests.
He at first said that he would not stop his efforts to rescue Korkie until he had received final confirmation of his death. But then Sooliman received word that Obama had announced Korkie’s death and contacted al-Hamati to tell him to abort the mission.
In fact Obama, US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel and US Secretary of State John Kerry did not mention either Korkie or South Africa by name in their statements but only a “non-US citizen hostage”.
After condemning “the barbaric murder of Luke Somers” during the rescue operation, and offering his condolences to his family, Obama said: “I also offer my thoughts and prayers to the family of a non-US citizen hostage who was also murdered by these terrorists during the rescue operation ”
Sooliman said he believed the US government must have known that talks were under way for the release of Korkie although not necessarily that he was about to be released.
The precise circumstances of Korkie’s death are not known. Sooliman seemed to leave open the possibility he might have been caught in the crossfire between the US and al-Qaeda fighters. But Obama and Hagel were both explicit that both Somers and the non-US hostage had been “murdered” while Kerry said that “Luke and a foreign national hostage were killed by their captors during the operation”.
Sooliman said Yolande must be particularly devastated after her hopes of getting Pierre home alive had been raised and then so tragically dashed within hours.
“The psychological and emotional devastation to Yolande and her family will be compounded by the knowledge that Pierre was to be released tomorrow,” he said.
He saluted her as “an outstanding lady with great resilience and patience”.
During the press conference he received an SMS from Yolande in which she said: “You salute me but I wish to return this salute to you and Anas and the tribes.”
Independent Media Foreign Bureau