Russian official says abducted aid worker still alive

Presidential aide Yastrzhembskii told journalists in Brussels in 26 February that Arjan Erkel, a Dutch employee of Doctors Without Borders who was abducted in Daghestan in August 2002, is definitely alive, and that Russian intelligence is trying to negotiate his release, ITAR-TASS reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 14 August 2002 and 1 April and 20 November 2003).
A spokeswoman for Daghestan's Interior Ministry told Interfax on 12 February that "everything possible is being done" to find and release Erkel. The identity of his abductors remains unclear. LF