The hijackers of a Somali airliner seized on Saturday released their 108 hostages unharmed today and were given the choice of political asylum or safe passage to a country of their choice by Ethiopia. The hijackers, led by a Somali military officer, had been threatening to blow up the plane and kill the people on board, including one American, identified today as Lieut. James Dell, 30 years old, of Orangeburg, N.Y., if their demands for the release of 21 political prisoners in Somalia were not met. Seven of those prisoners are students who, the hijackers said, were to have been executed in Somalia the day after the hijacking.
The hijackers told reporters today that they had agreed to free their hostages after being told that the Italian Government, which has been acting as an intermediary, had received assurances from Somalia that the seven students would not be executed. There has been no public statement to that effect from the Somali authorities. The freed hostages moved slowly and stiffly down the stairs to the runway and to a waiting bus. Most appeared dazed and bewildered, and several shielded their eyes against the bright morning light.
Lieutenant Dell, identified as a naval engineer working on port construction in Berbera, Somalia, said he was ''feeling a lot better'' now. He said the hijackers ''treated us very well.'' The three hijackers met with reporters in a lounge at the airport and defended their action. ''We are not terrorists,'' the leader of the hijackers, Capt. Awil Adan Bourhan, who was wearing a still fresh-looking khaki uniform and green beret, said several times. ''Just, we are trying to save our brothers.'' Another of the hijackers added: ''We had no choice but to act as we have done. If the international community does not come to the aid of the struggling Somali masses, more actions will be forthcoming.''
Captain Bourhan and his two compatriots, identified as Bashe Muse Mohammed and Ahmed Haji Mohammed Adan, both wearing civilian clothes, appeared drawn and groggy as they read from a prepared statement and answered questions. A member of the Somali Airlines crew said later that none of the hijackers had slept at all in the last three days and nights. The hijackers stressed that they had not wanted to kill anyone and that they had spared the lives of 20 Somali Government officials who were aboard.
The hijackers said they had ''already succeeded'' because Somalia had guaranteed the safety of the students. ''It is an international guarantee,'' one said. But he said the Somali President, Mohammed Siad Barre, had ''refused to give freedom'' to any of the political prisoners, including a former Somali Vice President, five former Cabinet members and two army colonels. Passengers Describe Hijacking
After the passengers and crew left the blue and white Boeing 707, which was guarded by armored vehicles and more than two dozen Ethiopian paratroopers, they described the hijacking, which occurred Saturday morning on a flight from Mogadishu to Jidda, Saudi Arabia. According to the accounts of several passengers and crew members, Captain Bourhan rose calmly from his seat and walked toward the cockpit carrying a briefcase from which he took a pistol. He then approached the cockpit door. ''I tried to stop him,'' said Suad Mohammed, 26 years old, who was the chief flight attendant. ''I grabbed him. But he was too heavy, too strong.''
A man in the crew also struggled with Captain Bourhan and was shot in the hip. A second shot was fired to force the pilot to open the door. The pilot, too, struggled briefly with Captain Bourhan and the two other hijackers, who had joined him, but he was beaten and quickly overcome. The wounded crew member, the slightly injured pilot and the co-pilot, who had fallen ill, were released on Saturday, as were 19 women and children.
Source: New York Times
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