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| Iraq |
| Osthoff sez Iraq captors "not criminals" |
| 2005-12-26 |
| A former German hostage who spent 24 days in the hands of unknown captors in Iraq said her kidnappers were not criminals and had demanded humanitarian aid for Sunni Arab regions. Speaking to Doha-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera, Susanne Osthoff said her captors told her not to be afraid as her kidnapping was "politically motivated." "Do not be afraid. We do not harm women or children and you are a Muslim," she quoted them as saying. "I was so happy to know that I had not fallen into the hands of criminals," she said. Osthoff, a Muslim convert and fluent Arabic speaker, said her captors demanded German humanitarian aid for Iraq's Sunni Arabs and stated clearly that they did not want a ransom. "They said we don't want money... Maybe we want from Germany ... hospitals and schools in the Sunni triangle (area northwest of Baghdad), and they would like to get money in the form of humanitarian aid," she said. |
| Posted by:Snaitle Shegum4858 |
| #4 Big Pharaoh has a fine fisking of this story. |
| Posted by: xbalanke 2005-12-26 23:49 |
| #3 Beware of Arabs bearing gifts: Shimani, the driver, was shown blindfolded as a hostage on a video delivered to ARD's Baghdad office after the November 25 abduction. Germany sought his release together with that of Osthoff, but diplomats say he has yet to show up at the German embassy in Baghdad. Solidarity campaigns and televised appeals from Germany during the abduction constantly placed the prominent Osthoff and the driver on an equal footing, demanding that the lives of both be spared, although the driver was not known to anyone in Germany. ARD, a nationwide chain of public broadcasters, quoted sources saying that a Duleimi sheikh had lent the driver to Osthoff for her overland trip to northern Iraq. German investigators now suspected the sheikh of the abduction. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-12-26 19:43 |
| #2 The word she is searching for is "Co-religionists". |
| Posted by: ed 2005-12-26 19:35 |
| #1 and a released prisoner... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-12-26 18:17 |