Grainy images show kidnapped activists are alive
Kidnappers of four kidnapped Christian peace activists threatened to kill them unless all Iraqi prisoners are released from Iraqi and US prisons, according to a tape broadcast today.
Al-Jazeera television aired a tape dated January 21 showing the four workers from the Chicago-based Christian Peacemaker activists, who disappeared on November 26. The previously unknown Swords of Righteousness Brigade claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
The newsreader said the group issued a statement with the tape saying it was the “last chance” for US and Iraqi authorities to “release all Iraqi prisoners in return of freeing the hostages otherwise their fate will be death”.
Al-Jazeera editor Saad al-Dosari declined to say how the station obtained the tape, which was about 55 seconds long. He said all of the tape was aired.
The hostages are Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32; Tom Fox, 54, of Clear Brook, Virginia, and Briton Norman Kember, 74.
More than 250 foreigners have been taken hostage in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam, and at least 39 have been killed.
The footage showing the men appeared greyish in tone and was apparently shot using the camera's night-vision function. It showed each of the four men standing near a wall, before cutting away to another shot in which they were seated and talking but their voices were not heard.
The hostages had been repeatedly warned by Iraqi and Western security officials that they were taking a grave risk by moving about Baghdad without bodyguards before their abduction.
Christian Peacemaker teams have been working in Iraq since October 2002 investigating allegations of abuse against Iraqi detainees by American and Iraqi forces. Its teams host human rights conferences in conflict zones, promoting peaceful solutions.
More than 250 foreigners have been taken hostage in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam, and at least 39 have been killed.
Among the hostages still unaccounted for is American reporter Jill Carroll, 28, who was abducted on January 7 in Baghdad. Her kidnappers have demanded the release of all Iraqi women in custody.
The US military said this week’s release of five Iraqi women who had been in military custody was routine and not in response to the ultimatum.
