Russia asks Yemen to help free kidnapped Tajik surgeon

MOSCOW, Mar 3, 2011- The Russian Foreign Ministry has sent a diplomatic note to the Yemen asking for assistance in freeing a Tajik citizen kidnapped in the country, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Thursday.

Khomiddin Ocheldiyev, a Tajik surgeon working in Yemen for Russian construction company Tekhnostroiexport, was kidnapped on February 28 by unknown gunmen in the country's Shabwa province, a remote mountainous region 650 kilometers east of the Yemeni capital.

There is no Tajik Embassy in Yemen, and the closest Tajik diplomatic representation in the region is in Saudi Arabia.

Lukashevich said the kidnapping was "carried out by local tribes and did not have any political context."

The Yemeni Health Ministry has already been negotiating with kidnappers on Ocheldiyev's release, the Russian diplomat said, quoting Tekhnostroiexport representatives.

Source: (RIA Novosti)