Mom pleads for hostage
2005-12-05 14:58
Berlin - The mother of Susanne Osthoff, the German woman being held hostage in Iraq, on Monday issued an emotional plea for her release after the government said it had failed to make contact with the kidnappers.
"My daughter is more Iraqi than German. Speak to her. Get to know Susanne. Then you will learn quickly that she only wanted to do one thing in Iraq, and that is to help the people there," Ingrid Hala said in her plea published in the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung.
She also urged the kidnappers to make contact with the German authorities.
Osthoff, 43, is a trained archeologist who has been doing aid work in Iraq for several years and a convert to Islam. She married an Arab and speaks fluent Arabic.
The German foreign ministry on Monday said it was trying everything possible to make contact with the group that took Osthoff and her driver hostage near Ninive in northwestern Iraq on November 25.
Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday conceded that her government had no information about the fate of Osthoff, the first German national to be kidnapped in Iraq.
She confirmed: "We do not yet know where she is and have not yet received signs of life from her."
She issued an appeal for the two hostages' release, saying the government was doing everything it could to save their lives.
The kidnappers set a deadline last Tuesday of three days for Germany to stop training Iraqi police officers as the price for the hostages' release, weekly magazines Focus and Der Spiegel reported on Monday.
A British peace activist, two Canadians and an American are also being held hostage in Iraq.
On Monday morning the Iraqi police said that a French engineer had been kidnapped in Baghdad.