G20 leaders mull ransom to kidnappers
HAMBURG — Whether the world’s wealthiest countries should promise not to pay ransoms to terrorist kidnappers formed part of the discussions about international security Friday as G20 meetings got underway in Germany.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged more than a year ago to push other world leaders to stop paying kidnappers after Canadians John Risdel and Robert Hall were killed by a terrorist group in the Philippines in April and June 2016.
A Canadian official, speaking on background, said the current draft of the final document outlining what the leaders agreed to at the G20 in Hamburg includes the ransom discussions — at Trudeau’s urging.
Risdel and Hall were kidnapped in September 2015 along with two other hostages who were later freed. The Norwegian man who was taken with them was freed after Norway paid a ransom of about $630,000 US, but Canada refused to pay.
Trudeau repeated the oft-heard Canadian claim, including from his predecessor Stephen Harper, that Canada does not pay ransom because it funds terrorist activity and encourages further kidnappings.
There has been language about ransom payments in the G20 communiqués in both 2015 and 2016, but neither summit resulted in a full pledge not to pay them at all. The 2013 G8 summit made such a pledge, but it was not heeded by all signatories.
Canada has long had an unofficial policy against paying ransoms but has done so on some occasions, including in 2009 when it paid $1.1 million to an al-Qaida affiliate in Africa to free diplomats Robert Fowler and Louis Guay.