| :Otago Daily Times; |
:Dec 8, 2005; |
:GENERAL; |
:3 |
|
|
Execution deadline today
Hostage’s family waits
By NZPA and Stu Oldham
Wellington: With the Iraqi kidnappers’ deadline for the threatened execution of an Auckland University student and his fellow hostages fast approaching, his family in New Zealand can only sit anxiously and wait for news.
Harmeet Singh Sooden, a 32-year-old Canadian, was abducted in Iraq 10 days ago along with three other members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams doing humanitarian-aid work in the war-torn country.
He has been studying in Auckland for the past three years and holds permanent residence in New Zealand.
A group calling itself the Brigade of the Swords of Righteousness is holding the four men, who are being threatened with death unless Iraqi prisoners held in Iraq and the United States are freed by today.
Mr Sooden’s brother-in-law Mark Brewer said last night the family was aware the deadline was looming.
“Tomorrow is the deadline that’s been set and we really are just sitting and waiting,” he told TV1’s Close Up programme.
“We get the odd titbit of information through official channels but nothing concrete as yet, we’re just hoping that this communication reaches the right people . . . and these guys are set free.”
Mr Brewer said Mr Sooden’s father had flown into Auckland from Zambia to be with the family.
“It was a long flight, he’s exhausted and obviously quite distressed,” Mr Brewer said.
Mr Brewer said he reiterated the sentiments made by Mr Sooden’s
mother in her plea to the kidnappers.
“Please just let him go, it can’t be any simpler than that,” he said.
“Equally
importantly, we are focused on our loved one but there are other guys there that also should be free, and I think it’s time that we just put this thing straight and let them out.”
The kidnappers’ threat to kill to make a point about the American occupation of Iraq counters the teachings of Islam, a former foreign minister of a pre-Taleban government in Afghanistan says.
Dr Najibullah Lafraie, a University of Otago lecturer who was once part of the liberation movement opposing the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, yesterday said killing any of the men would be a deviation from justice, and a mortal sin.
“How would that help the cause of the Iraqi people — how would killing four men make a difference when the occupiers do not even care about their own soldiers . . . why would they then care for men that are thorns in their sides?”
Dr Lafraie, a long-time opponent of the American-led occupation of Iraq, was speaking at a vigil at Dunedin’s Peace Pole, where about 25 people gathered to lay flowers and light candles to support the humanitarians kidnapped in Iraq.
