Sahara hostages asked to pay up

The amounts will depend on each person's ability to pay

German tourists taken hostage in the Sahara desert this year have been told to pay for being rescued.

One of them, Rainer Bracht, said the Foreign Ministry asked him for about 2,300 euros, a fraction of the total.

He said the request was "totally populist", and that victims of violence should not have to pay.

The nine Germans were among 14 European tourists freed in August more than five months after being seized in small groups by Islamic militants in Algeria.

A 15th tourist, a German woman, died during the ordeal.

'Lot of money'

Germany is reported to have paid a ransom for the hostages, but the government has refused to confirm or deny this.

If I was taken captive on a tram in Bremen I wouldn't have had to pay for my rescue Rainer Bracht Former hostage

The hostages are expected to pay towards the costs of communications and trips by officials in negotiation with the hostage-takers, and their own flight home on a German Air Force plane.

Press reports have put the total cost at around 20 million euros.

Mr Bracht complained that he and his fellow former hostages would not have been treated in the same way if they had been captured inside Germany.

"If I was taken captive on a tram in Bremen I wouldn't have had to pay for my rescue," he told Der Spiegel newspaper.

He added that the amount was a lot of money for him and he would ask for time to pay.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman told AFP news agency that it had always been understood that the former hostages would have to pay something towards the costs of the rescue.

'Peace and quiet'

Without giving figures, he said the amount would depend on each person's ability to pay.

Mr Bracht said that he thought the other former hostages would pay for the sake of "peace and quiet".

He added that other tourists kidnapped at about the same time but released in May had been asked to pay just over 1,000 euros each.

Altogether 32 tourists were captured in small groups during a spate of kidnappings in February and March.

It has been suggested that the groups should have informed the authorities of their planned route before setting off, and should have travelled with guides.

The German Government has already warned the hostages not to seek to sell their stories for profit.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has vowed to hunt down the hostage-takers, who are thought to be members of Algerian Islamist organisation the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat.