Another new militant group says it has kidnapped
10 more people - including two Indonesian women already
reported to have been released - as abductions of
foreigners continue in Iraq.
A group previously
unknown outside Iraq, calling itself the Islamic Army in
Iraq: Western Leadership, announced it had taken the
hostages in a videotape sent to the Qatar-based Arabic
satellite station alJazeera. The group is demanding that
the company that employs the captives - who include two
Lebanese and six Iraqis - stop working with the US-led
coalition.
The latest kidnappings come just
three days after a different group released two female
Italian humanitarian workers who had been held for three
weeks. The freeing of the Italian women offered a rare
moment of good news since a wave of kidnapping of
foreigners began in April. The seizures of people from
many nations has continued despite global pleas for
kidnappers to end the practice.
One of the
Italian hostages, Simona Torretta, underlined the extent
of the public's concern over kidnappings as she thanked
people for their support in a press conference earlier
this week. "I want to thank all the Muslim community in
the whole world that I know have expressed their
solidarity with us," she said. "In particular, I wish to
thank the Iraqi population who were always close to us
at this difficult time."
There are conflicting
reports of whether the Italian government paid a ransom
worth US$1 million to free Torretta and her colleague,
Simona Pari.
The immediate abduction of 10 more
hostages so soon after the Italians' release raises anew
the question of what motivates the kidnappers to
continue taking foreigners. Iraqi interim Prime Minister
Iyad Allawi said on Monday that militant groups are
using the kidnappings for political ends and will
continue so long as they get publicity for their cause.
Allawi cited as an example the case of British
hostage Kenneth Bigley, who remains in captivity after
the beheadings of two Americans who were abducted with
him. "It is repugnant to take an innocent man such as
Kenneth Bigley and to use him as a political pawn in
this way. The anguish and pain inflicted on his family
and friends are indescribable," Allawi said.
Then the Iraqi prime minister went on to accuse
the media of fanning the crisis by accepting videotapes
from the hostage-takers and airing them. "Let us not
forget that this sort of terrorism depends entirely on
publicity," he said. "We therefore need to think long
and hard about the way this kidnapping [of Bigley] has
been covered by the media. A few sober voices have
questioned whether the media should itself be feeding
the crisis on which it is reporting and asking whether
they have consistently behaved responsibly."
Bigley is believed to be held by a group led by
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born extremist
considered by Washington to be associated with al-Qaeda.
His group, al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, wants to expel US-led
forces from Iraq. Zarqawi's group killed Bigley's two
American associates last month after linking all three
men's fate to the release of Iraqi women from
coalition-run prisons. The coalition has dismissed the
demand as ill-informed, saying it holds only three
prominent females who worked on Saddam Hussein's weapons
development programs.
The US has offered a
reward of $25 million for the killing or capture of
Zarqawi. He is believed to have personally decapitated
another American hostage, Nicholas Berg, in May.
The US and Britain have so far refused to
negotiate for the release of their nationals taken
captive. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said last
week that any bargaining with kidnappers only encourages
more abductions. Straw spoke after the media aired a
videotape of Bigley pleading for the British government
to help free him.
"I'm afraid to say [that
Bigley's video plea] can't alter the position of the
British government and, as I've explained to the family,
we can't get into a situation of bargaining with
terrorists because this would put many more people's
lives at risk, not only in Iraq, but around the world,"
Straw said.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair
repeated on September 29 that he will not negotiate but
said he would respond to any efforts by the hostage
takers to contact his government. But he said that, so
far, "they're not in contact with us [and] it's
impossible for us to make contact with them".
Most media attention in recent months has
focused on the fate of hostages taken by groups making
political demands. However, other groups have appeared
as much motivated by money as politics.
Several
companies in Kuwait and Jordan are reported to have paid
ransoms of unspecified amounts to free drivers abducted
on Iraq's roads. Often the kidnappers have also required
the companies to promise they would stop working with
coalition forces in the future.
Some senior
Iraqi officials say ransom payment has become common
enough that it is both encouraging further abductions of
foreigners and pushing up the captors' financial
demands. Sabah Kadhim, a spokesman for Iraq's Interior
Ministry, said this month that "the reason for the
acceleration in kidnappings is simply because ransoms
are being paid, that's it." He added, "You can
understand why they pay, but it fuels the problem."
About 130 foreigners have been seized in Iraq
since April. Most of the foreign hostages have been
released, but around 30 have been killed.
Since
the US-led war to topple Saddam last year, hundreds of
wealthy Iraqis have been kidnapped by criminal gangs.
The gangs demand ransoms of up to $100,000 and sometimes
kill their captives if they consider the amount paid to
be too small.
Copyright (c) 2004, RFE/RL Inc.
Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave
NW, Washington DC 20036
