Hostage Taking and Negotiation

Hostages have been taken in order to seek some advantage since the Roman Empire. But it was the poor handling of two incidents, one in the United States and one in Europe, that finally brought about a more professional approach in the response to hostage taking. At New York's Attica state prison in the United States in 1971, inmates took control of the prison, taking staff hostage. In regaining control, 39 people were killed, including 10 staff. The following year, in an attack by eight members of a Palestinian group, Black September, on the Israeli team quarters at the Munich Olympics in Germany, two Israeli athletes were killed and eight were taken hostage. An abortive attempt by German security forces to free the hostages at a nearby airfield left all eight Israeli hostages and five of the terrorists dead; three survived. A German police officer was also killed. Following these two incidents, many countries identified, first, the need to train negotiators, primarily in law enforcement agencies, to attempt to bring about the release of hostages unharmed. Second, they immediately started training special units, both law enforcement and military, to rescue hostages if the need arose.

Hostages are people held against their will by an individual or a group, usually for the purpose of fulfilling certain demands. By virtue of Articles 1 and 2 of the International Convention Against the Taking of Hostages, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 17, 1979, it is an offense for a person to attempt to commit an act of hostage taking or to be an accomplice in an act in which hostages are seized or an attempt is made to seize them. A hostage taker is a person who has taken hostages against their will and is threatening to commit acts of violence against them. The stronghold is the term given by law enforcement agencies to the premises in which a hostage taker is holding hostages. A negotiator is a person who negotiates with the hostage taker(s) for the release of the person(s) they have taken hostage.

Americans held hostage in Iran disembark Freedom One upon their arrival at Andrews Air Force Base, January 27, 1981. In a diplomatic crisis, 52 Americans were held for 444 days from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981.

Next to the overall commander, negotiators are probably the most important people in responding to a hostage incident. The priorities of the negotiator, in a liberal democracy, are to save the lives of the hostages and, if possible, to save the lives of the hostage takers and to gain intelligence for the [Page 480]officer in command of the incident. Negotiators are trained “to play for time” by slowing things down for four reasons. The first is to allow what is known as Stockholm Syndrome to develop. This phenomenon arose when four employees who had been held at gunpoint by two criminals for six days in a Stockholm bank in which they worked declared their loyalty to the hostage takers. Second, during the early stages, when adrenalin is high in both the hostage takers and the hostages, it is hoped that time will allow them to become more rational. Third, it is important to gain intelligence in case negotiations fail and it becomes necessary to assault the stronghold. Finally, it enables the law enforcement agencies to gain the initiative.

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