Hostage's family says sorry
2004-10-31 08:29
Tokyo - The parents of a 24-year-old Japanese traveller who was kidnapped and beheaded in Iraq said on Sunday they hoped for peace in the insurgency-torn country and apologised for the trouble caused by the crisis.
"We apologise from our hearts for causing anxiety to the many people who supported us, while we are full of gratitude for their support," the parents of Shosei Koda said in a statement read by an official in the southern city of Nogata.
"We pray for peace for the Iraqi people as soon as possible," the statement said.
Japan confirmed that a head and a decapitated body found wrapped in a US flag on Saturday in Baghdad were of Koda, who had apparently gone to Iraq as a tourist.
Koda was seen in a video released on Tuesday at the feet of three armed, masked men under a banner of Islamic militant Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, who threatened to behead him if Japan did not withdraw its 550 troops in Iraq within 48 hours.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi refused to withdraw the troops, saying he would not give in to terrorism.
Koda's mother Setsuko, 50, made an emotional plea for her son's life Friday on the widely watched Al-Jazeera television network as well as to other foreign journalists in Tokyo, saying her son only wanted to help the Iraqi people.
She refrained from calling on the government to withdraw troops, saying "we are just ordinary civilians".
Japan in April secured the release of five of its citizens taken hostage in Iraq. The hostages apologised for the crisis when they returned to Japan.
- AFP