No word on fate of hostages

[Said1]

No word on fate of hostages as deadline passes

CTV.ca News Staff

There has been no word from kidnappers holding four Westerners hostage in Iraq, as their execution deadline came and went on Saturday.

A spokesperson from Iraq's interior ministry, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they had received no information about the four activists as of Saturday afternoon, The Associated Press reported.

The hostages are Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32; Briton Norman Kember, 74; and American Tom Fox, 54.

Speaking from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., Loney family friend Jerry Stein told CTV Newsnet on Saturday that the Loneys "are doing fairly well. They're a strong family, of strong faith, and ... they're just watching and waiting."

Katherine Fox, Tom's daughter, said in a statement on CNN: "Both my father and I share concerns regarding the U.S. government's presence and occupation of Iraq. These grievances, however, will not be resolved by taking my father's life."

The kidnappers, who call themselves the Swords of Righteousness Brigade, had threatened to kill the hostages by Saturday unless authorities release all Iraqi prisoners in U.S. and Iraqi detention centres.

Multinational forces in Iraq released about 240 detainees Saturday, according to the al-Iraqiyaa television station. They were freed from Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad and Boka prison in the southern city of Basra.

However, the releases are not connected to the kidnappers' demands. They are common and scheduled weeks in advance.

The deadline

The exact deadline the hostages are facing is uncertain, because the concept of time in the Middle East can be more fluid than in the West.

"Time in the Middle East and in Arab society is very relative," terrorism expert Eric Margolis told Newsnet. "So these deadlines don't really mean too much. And the fact that (the deadline) was changed and extended is a good sign, because it means that there's some kind of bargaining … going on."

Canadian officials are viewing the deadline as having started at 4 p.m. EST Friday (midnight in Baghdad), but it could be days before the fate of the hostages is known.

The kidnappers seized the hostages, who are all members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, an anti-war group, at gunpoint in Baghdad on Nov. 26.

The kidnappers, who accuse the four hostages of being spies, originally said they would kill them on Thursday. However, they extended the deadline earlier this week.

According to Dan McTeague, parliamentary secretary responsible for Canadians abroad, officials are hopeful that their message -- that the hostages are peaceful -- will still reach the kidnappers.

"The message is without any doubt firm and clear, from all corners of the earth: Release these individuals, they came in peace," he told CTV Newsnet.

International efforts

During prayers in a mosque in north Baghdad's predominantly Sunni Arab neighbourhood Friday, top Sunni cleric Ahmed Hassan demanded the release of the four charity workers.

"I stress on the necessity to release the four kidnapped foreigners who have helped the residents of Azamiyah," he said, as dozens of residents held up banners protesting at the kidnapping.

Jerry Stein said the Loneys greatly appreciated such statements, and hoped "they are getting to the captors, whoever they may be."

The U.S. and British government have their own efforts underway to help free the hostages.

Footage issued by the kidnappers Thursday and aired on the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera network showed the British and American hostages blindfolded and shackled and begging for their release.

In a disturbing twist, the footage does not show the Canadian hostages, suggesting the fates of the hostages may be diverging, possibly because Canada stayed out of the Iraq war.

Other Iraqi kidnappers are holding a French aid worker and a German citizen.

An insurgent group claimed Thursday to have killed an American hostage.

Iraqi officials believe the recent rash of foreign kidnappings is an attempt to undermine Dec. 15 elections, in which Iraqis will choose a parliament to serve for four years.

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