Kidnappers treated Osthoff well

2005-12-26 22:17

Baghdad - A German woman freed after being held hostage in Iraq for more than three weeks said in an interview aired on Monday that she was treated well by her kidnappers, who told her they do not hurt women or children.

Susanne Osthoff, a 43-year-old aid worker and archaeologist, told the Arabic-language Al-Jazeera satellite channel that instead of money, her abductors wanted humanitarian projects such as schools and hospitals be built in Sunni areas.

"Thank God, I am still alive," Osthoff said in Arabic, a black scarf wrapped around her head.

Osthoff, the first German to be kidnapped in Iraq, disappeared with her Iraqi driver November 25.

Her release was announced on December 18.

The driver is also believed to have been released.

The German government expressed concern on Monday that Osthoff has not ruled out going back to Iraq and appealed to her not to return.

"After the intensive efforts of many who were involved, which in the end led to her release, I would find it hard to understand if Mrs Ostoff again put herself in a dangerous situation," German foreign Mmnister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in a statement.

In most of the Al-Jazeera interview, Osthoff spoke in English, with an Arabic translation voiceover.

She said she resisted her kidnappers as they shoved her inside a car's trunk, according to the voiceover.

She could see a police patrol under a nearby bridge, she added. It wasn't clear if the police saw her.

The trip to where she was held lasted for a long time. There, her kidnappers called her by name and told her they knew she was a friend of Iraq, she said.

They also told her that this was a political, not a criminal kidnapping.

The place where she was held was comfortable, she said, even though there was no power and no stores nearby.

Cellphones were not working. She drank tea and smoked a lot.

Her captors told her they were trying to contact German authorities.

Osthoff was later transferred to Baghdad and released.

Details of how her release was secured were not clear from the translation.

Osthoff said she knew all along that she was in danger in Iraq and that she might be killed by a bombing any time she went out.

But she said she felt the Iraqi people were living in misery and needed help.

The aid money that entered the country did not reach ordinary Iraqis, she argued.

- AP