Arjan Erkel
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Peter-Arjan Erkel (born March 9, 1970) is a Dutch medical aid worker and was head of the relief mission for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Dagestan, a constituent republic of Russia.
His main task was caring for refugees fleeing from fighting in neighbouring Chechnya.
He was abducted by gunmen in Makhachkala on August 12th, 2002. To this day, the humanitarian group is not sure who abducted Mr. Erkel or why, but it does know that he was being shadowed by Russian security forces in the days before his disappearance.
On April 11, 2004, Erkel was free again and appeared to be in reasonably good health. Originaly the Dutch government claimed that Erkel was rescued in a “special operation” conducted jointly by the Russian (Federal Security Service) FSB and local Dagestani police and that Arjan was slightly hurt in the "storming" of the hideout but the government eventually admitted that that was a lie and that they paid a 1 million Euro ransom to free Erkel, but claimed that it didn't pay the ransom itself but on behalf of the organisation, claiming it was a loan that MSF had orally promised to pay back. MSF refutes this and in June 2004 the Dutch government announced a lawsuit.
MSF has suspended its operations in Chechnya several times over kidnappings of its personnel.
March 2007. The Dutch Government lost the courtcase.
