Nine coffins were unloaded from a government plane on the morning of January 25, Friday—the remains of those who perished during the hostage crisis in Algeria. The plane also brought home seven survivors. They were all working for the Japanese engineering company JGC Corp.
During a press conference held at the JGC headquarters, its president, Koichi Kawana, spoke emotionally of dedicated colleagues and employees that they had lost. He said that they all took pride in their work because they were contributing something “to developing countries, particularly those with natural resources, including Muslim countries, by building oil and natural gas plants.” Kawana personally went to Algeria determined to bring all their workers home. He recalled how difficult it was to confirm the bodies of their dead. In memory of those who had lost their lives, more than a hundred flowers had been left at the JGC headquarters, as the tenth dead Japanese was confirmed, the number of flowers increased.
On Saturday, January 26, the body of the tenth Japanese victim arrived at Narita airport. It was transferred from Algeria aboard a commercial flight accompanied by Minoru Kiuchi, Japan’s vice foreign minister. Once on the ground, flowers were placed on the coffin as the welcoming group offered a minute of silent prayer.
[via Asia News Network]