Johan gave an interview last week to Le Monde [in French] where he gets back to what happened.

Read the full article here or download it from there: Johan-Freckhaus-Otage-Des-Talibans [PDF]

Un jeune entrepreneur francais, Johan Freckhaus a ete kidnappe en compagnie de son chauffeur et deux de ses employes Afghans le 29 Mai sur la route reliant Moqor a Ghazni, une zone du Sud-Est de l’Afghanistan particulierement dangereuse.

Age de 37 ans, Johan Freckhaus travaille en Afghanistan depuis pres de dix ans. Tres fin connaisseur du pays, il en a appris la langue et s’est parfaitement integre a la population. Charge dans un premier temps des operations locales d’un grand groupe francais de BTP, il a ensuite cree il y a quelques annees une Joint-Venture franco-afghane specialisee dans les travaux de relevements geo-topographiques.

S’attachant au travers de cette societe oeuvrant au profit de la construction et des travaux publics a participer a la reconstruction de l’Afghanistan et a donner a ses habitantsde reelles perspectives de developpement dans un pays ravage par la guerre et la culture endemique du pavot, Johan Freckhaus etait pleinement conscient des risques qu’il prenait.

Tout en prenant les mesures necessaire a la protection de ses employes et de son activite, il envisageait recemment selon ses proches, de revenir au moins temporairement en France face a la tension grandissante dans la region.

Johan semble avoir ete enleve par des bandits de grand chemin, nombreux dans cette region du pays, mais de nombreux observateurs estiment probable qu’il ait ete ensuite remis entre les mains de groupes talibans.

R.J.

Peu de chose a ajouter… sauf qu’au cas ou les groupes talibans – ou qui que se soit – versent dans le business du kidnapping comme il est pratique en Irak i.e. dirige a l’encontre des gens normaux, les forces de l’OTAN vont se retrouver bien seuls pour econstuire le pays… ce qui n’est du reste par leur tache premiere.

A French businessman, Johan Freckhaus, was kidnapped on May 29 along with two Afghan colleagues and their chauffeur, on a road notoriously reported for ambushes and attacks connecting Moqor to Ghazni in southern Afghanistan.

Aged 37, Johan Freckhaus has been living and working in Afghanistan for 9 years, he speaks Dari, is very familiar with the country’s traditions and specificities and is very well integrated with local populations. Previously in charge of running the local operations of a large French construction corporation, he is now the head of a local joint-venture specializing in construction work.

Devoting himself to building local capacities and to the reconstruction of the country’s infrastructures, his main objective is to give the Afghans he works along some real perspectives, in a country most known for its poppy fields and endemic violence. Johan Freckhaus told his relatives lately he was fully aware of the risks he was undertaking and was then considering going back to France temporarily, the security situation worsening day after day.

French authorities believe the four will be handed to the Taliban, as it has been supposedly reported by a French News Channel.

R.J.

Not much more to say…. except that if the Taliban – or whoever – now turn into the kidnapping business as it is in Irak, i.e. targeted at common people, there will nobody left but the NATO forces working at the reconstruction of the country… And from what I understand, this is not exactly their purpose there.