US hostage paraded on TV

2004-04-17 20:23

Baghdad - Two Japanese held hostage in Iraq were released by their captors here on Saturday and turned over to an association of Sunni Muslim scholars just hours after a detained US soldier, flanked by hooded gunmen, was paraded on an Arabic satellite channel.

As relief swept Tokyo at the end of a saga in which a total of five Japanese were finally freed, friends of the American soldier's family who saw the video confirmed the identity of army Private First Class Matthew Maupin.

He was the first US soldier known to be held hostage in the war-torn country.

The release of the last two Japanese, freelance journalist Junpei Yasuda, 30, and human rights activist Nobutaka Watanabe, 36, came two days after the first three were freed.

Yasuda and Watanabe were handed over to Japanese embassy staff at a mosque in Baghdad at around 08:30 GMT.

"The two were released, they are next to me," said Sheikh Abdul Salam Kubaissi, at the Committee of Muslim Scholars. "They are in very good health."

"It's good news," said Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, whose government had been plunged into crisis by the kidnappings. "The families must be relieved."

Watanabe, 36, told the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) after his release that his captors had a message for the Japanese people.

Japan is a friend

"The armed group is very angry at the US military occupation of Iraq but Japan is Iraq's friend," an NHK reporter quoted Watanabe as saying in a broadcast seen in Tokyo.

"We don't want to harm our friends. Please tell this to the people of Japan," the group said, adding however that Japan should also withdraw its troops from Iraq. The Tokyo government has rejected the demand.

Kubaissi said: "One of the Japanese said that his captors determined, after verifying his identity, that he was a honest man and that he opposed the occupation and the presence of Japanese soldiers in Iraq."

On Friday, the Arabic television station broadcast footage of the US soldier held hostage by insurgents.

Four bodies found

Maupin is one of two soldiers who went missing along with seven US contractors after an attack on a fuel convoy near Baghdad airport that left one dead and 12 wounded a week ago.

US officials said four bodies had been found in shallow graves near the attack site but they have not been identified.

A US contractor, Thomas Hamill, a 43-year-old truck driver and former dairy farmer, has also been shown in captivity on a regional television station.

On Saturday, the family of an Iraqi-born Canadian said he had been missing for nine days after disappearing while returning from work at Abu Gharib prison, west of Baghdad.

Other foreigners kidnapped or believed to have been abducted include a Dane, a Jordanian businessman and an Israeli Arab.

On Friday, three Czech hostages and one Canadian were freed, along with a Chinese national whose kidnapping had not been reported previously.

One hostage, an Italian security guard, is known to have been murdered.

- AFP