| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq |
| German Woman Believed Kidnapped in Iraq |
| 2005-11-29 |
| A German citizen likely was kidnapped in Iraq, Germany's chancellor said Tuesday, and a television station broadcast photos that appear to show the blindfolded woman with her captors. Germany's ARD television said the pictures were taken from a video in which her captors demanded that Germany stop any dealings with Iraq's government. Germany has ruled out sending troops to Iraq and opposed the U.S.-led war. Susanne Osthoff and her driver have been missing since Friday and "according to current information we have to assume it is a kidnapping," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters in Berlin. Osthoff's mother, identified only as Ingrid H., told Germany N24 news station that her daughter is an archaeologist working for a German aid organization distributing medicine and medical supplies since before the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. ARD reported that the woman speaks fluent Arabic. Separately, the aid group Christian Peacemaker Teams confirmed in a statement Tuesday that four people from the group had been taken hostage on Saturday and that Norman Kember, a 74-year-old Briton, was among them. The group said it has had a team in Iraq since October 2002, working with U.S. and Iraqi detainees and training others in nonviolent intervention and human rights documentation. Kember and another person were part of a visiting delegation, while two of the group's staff based in Iraq were also taken, the statement said. The group said it would not identify the other three people taken hostage, but stressed that it worked on behalf of Iraqi civilians. "The team's work has focused on documenting and focusing public attention on detainee abuses, connecting citizens of Iraq to local and international human rights organizations, and accompanying Iraqi civilians as they interact with multinational military personnel and Iraq's government officials," the group said. The statement said those taken hostage knew the risks when they went into Iraq. The organization said it "does not advocate the use of violent force to save our lives should we be kidnapped, held hostage, or caught in the middle of a conflict situation." |
| Posted by:ed |
| #3 I care more about what my cat will have for dinner than whatever happens to these assholes. First rule of hostage-taking: take someone somebody cares about |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-11-29 15:05 |
| #2 Christian Peacemaker Teams is the group that sponsored the "Adopt-a-Detainee" program: After a year and a half of coordinated advocacy for Iraqis detained by U.S. and other occupying forces, Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) is ending its Adopt-a-Detainee Letter-Writing Campaign. CPT's Iraq project will, however, continue to monitor the situation of Iraqis captured by the Multinational Force in Iraq (MNF) and by the new Iraqi Forces. The Adopt-a-Detainee Letter-Writing Campaign, beginning in March 2004, matched individual detainees with congregations, mosques, synagogues, and peace groups in North America and around the world. These groups wrote letters to U.S., Iraqi and other relevant officials on the detainees' behalf. The campaign grew out of CPT's investigation of and reporting on abuses within the U.S.-run detention system in Iraq during the fall of 2003. The Adopt-a-Detainee Letter-Writing Campaign included a total of twenty-seven detainees, nine of whom U.S. officials released during the campaign, ten of whom were still detained at last word, and seven of whom U.S. officials never confirmed as detained (i.e., the "disappeared.") During the campaign, at least 1,000 people and groups participated from Canada, France, Germany, India, Israel, Nigeria, the Palestinian Territories, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. CPT expresses its sincere gratitude to all of those who participated in the campaign in various ways. Changes in administrations during the past two years--from the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority, to the Interim Iraqi Government, to the current Transitional Iraqi Government--forced CPT to adapt its approach several times. While supportive of improvements made within the detention system in Iraq since the fall of 2003, CPT condemned the U.S. military's ongoing refusal to uphold basic human rights standards for the thousands of Iraqi detainees still in their custody. Since the transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqis in June 2004, CPT has experienced U.S. officials in Iraq becoming increasingly unresponsive to appeals for reform, both from team members on location in Iraq and from letter-writers abroad. Consequently, CPT members in Baghdad decided they needed to shift their immediate focus in order to continue toward their long-term goals of violence reduction and human rights for Iraqi detainees. While officially closing the Adopt-a-Detainee Letter-Writing Campaign, CPT in Iraq will continue to monitor the situation of Iraqi detainees and develop new strategies to reduce violence against the Iraqis still in detention. If the "insurgents" find out who they've grabbed, they'll be cut free in a touching ceremony |
| Posted by: Steve 2005-11-29 14:36 |
| #1 Properly speaking, these are not "activists", they are "agitators". "The team's work has focused on documenting and focusing public attention on detainee abuses, connecting citizens of Iraq to local and international human rights organizations, and accompanying Iraqi civilians as they interact with multinational military personnel and Iraq's government officials," the group said. Plain and simple, these individuals are working on behalf of the terrorists to challenge the US in the legal system in any way they can, with the express purpose of inhibiting and interfering with the pacification of the country. By definition, they are not "peace activists". |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-11-29 12:33 |