Two Germans Held in Lebanon Not Likely to Be Free Soon

BERLIN — As the year-end target date for winning the release of all Western hostages held in Beirut passed Tuesday, there was little to indicate that two Germans still held captive by Muslim extremists in Lebanon might soon be free.

The two men, aid workers Heinrich Streubig, 50, and Thomas Kemptner, 30, were kidnaped in Beirut in May, 1989. They remain prisoners of the powerful Lebanese family known as the Hammadi Clan, despite the major diplomatic initiative launched last August that eventually led to the release of all other Western hostages in the city.

The last American hostage, journalist Terry A. Anderson, was set free in early December.

As recently as late November, Muslim fundamentalist sources in Damascus, Syria, were predicting that the two Germans would likely be free by Christmas.

Last week, kidnapers released a videotape showing the two men dressed in suits, sitting in front of a Christmas tree and a seascape backdrop. It was the most recent confirmation that the two are alive.

By last weekend, hopes had brightened further as a Lebanese radio station reported that their release was imminent.

However, Monday’s editions of the Beirut newspaper Al Hayat claimed that negotiations to free the Germans had collapsed. German government officials said Tuesday that they were aware of no new movement on the issue.

Despite the passing of the unofficial year-end deadline--a target set by outgoing U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar to coincide with his last day in office--German officials stressed that efforts to free the two men would continue.

“This is an ongoing effort for all concerned,” said German Foreign Ministry spokesman Peter Wittig. “We have never worked to a specific deadline.”

Wittig said Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher spoke by telephone last week with both Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati and his Syrian counterpart, Farouk Shareh, on the issue, and that both had promised that diplomatic efforts to win release of the hostages would not ease.

“Both said they were prepared to do anything in their power to win the freedom of the German hostages,” said Wittig. “We can only hope that they can help.”

He said German efforts to free Streubig and Kemptner continue to be channeled mainly through special U.N. mediator Giandomenico Picco, the man who helped broker the release of the last British and American hostages.

In the recently released videotape, Kemptner said freedom for himself and Streubig is “directly connected” to the early release of the Hammadi brothers.

Mohammed Ali Hammadi, 27, was sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the 1985 hijacking of a TWA aircraft in which the hijackers summarily executed an American serviceman. Abbas Ali Hammadi, 25, is serving a 13-year term for kidnaping two German businessmen in an abortive attempt to win his brother’s freedom.

So far, the German government publicly has refused to consider any exchange.

The United States is strenuously opposed to any deal that would allow the Hammadis to go free.