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British hostage's wife calls for release
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-05 08:43
The wife of a British hostage held in Iraq made an emotional appeal Sunday
for his release, saying on Al-Jazeera television that the Christian peace
activist came to help the Iraqi people.
Pat Kember, wife of Norman Kember, said her 74-year-old husband "is a very
caring man" who wanted to help alleviate the suffering of the Iraqi people.
Speaking English with an Arabic voiceover, she urged the kidnappers to
release her husband and three fellow activists so they could continue their work
in Iraq.
Kember was taken hostage in Baghdad last week, along with Tom Fox, 54, of
Clear Brook, Va., and the Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden,
32. The four members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams were seized by the
previously unknown Swords of Righteousness Brigade.
The kidnappers have threatened to kill the hostages if Iraqi prisoners are
not released from American and Iraqi jails by Thursday, Al-Jazeera reported.
At least two leading Sunni organizations, the Association of Muslim Scholars
and the Iraqi Islamic Army, have called for their release, as has Christian
Peacemaker Teams.
In Germany, meanwhile, Chancellor Angela Merkel and others pressed for the
release of Susanne Osthoff, an aid worker kidnapped in Iraq on Nov. 25 along
with her driver.
In an appeal published by the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, Merkel said the
government "is doing everything it can to save the lives of Susanne Osthoff and
her companion," an Iraqi driver.
Her kidnappers threatened to kill Osthoff, 43, unless Germany stops
cooperating with the Iraqi government.
The magazines Der Spiegel and Focus reported over the weekend that their
ultimatum expired early Friday. The government refused to comment on those
reports.
The head of Germany's Central Council of Muslims also appealed for Osthoff's
release.
The kidnapping "contravenes the values of Islam, of good sense and of every
civilization," Nadeem Elyas wrote in Bild am Sonntag. The daily Tageszeitung
quoted Elyas as saying he would consider offering to exchange himself for
Osthoff.
Osthoff's sister and mother have appealed to the kidnappers to consider that
their captive was a Muslim convert with a young daughter. Her brother, Robert
Osthoff, echoed their plea on German television Sunday.
"She helps people and she has an Arab heart," he said.
Germany strongly opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and has refused to
send troops, but it has been training Iraqi soldiers and police outside the
country.
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