Jordan Times
Monday, August 2, 2004
'Gov't following up on hostage issue'
AMMAN (AFP) — The government on Sunday said the
embassy in Baghdad was closely following up on the issue of the four citizens
kidnapped in Iraq last Tuesday as well as another two seized the day before.
“We prefer to act with discretion and away from the media spotlight,” an
official said. But the family of one of the hostages asked the government to
take action to secure his release along with that of three colleagues.
“We are waiting to see what the government will do today,” said Walid, a brother
of hostage Mohammad Khleifat. Khleifat said his family was “following the news
of my brother on the television.”
He said he had not received any calls from the kidnappers, unlike the family of
fellow hostage Ahmad Abu Jaafar.
That family said it received several telephone calls on Saturday from the
kidnappers and they had even been able to speak to Ahmad, who reassured them
that he was in good hands.
Dubai Television reported Saturday that the kidnappers of the four truck drivers
had telephoned the station to complain no one had contacted them to seek their
release and threatened to “change the [good] treatment” of the captives.
The chief of the hostage-takers who call themselves the “Death Squad,” said the
captives were being well treated, but he “threatened that this would change if
their demands are not met,” the satellite station said.
“No one negotiated with us ... these Arab citizens are worth nothing to their
government, whereas no stone is left unturned when a Westerner is taken captive
by the mujahedeen and the resistance,” the caller was heard to say.
On Thursday, Dubai Television aired a video in which the group, giving its name
as “Death Squad of Mujahedeen of Iraq,” said it was holding the four truckers
and called on the Jordanian people to pressure their government to end its
support for US-led forces.
“We have asked their government to denounce the aggression and cease its support
for US forces, and for companies that deal with US forces to pull out. We would
then have no problem with them,” the caller said Saturday.
“We are now treating them as guests, and even better. We hope this crisis will
end as far as they are concerned and you can ask them how we treated them. We
are the soldiers of God, not the soldiers of [deposed president] Saddam
Hussein.”
The four Jordanians were abducted amid a spate of hostage-taking by insurgents,
who have been singling out truckers working for companies which ferry goods to
Iraq in a bid to pressure their employers to pull out. The two other Jordanian
drivers kidnapped on Aug. 26 were reportedly threatened with death unless their
employer stopped work in Iraq within 72 hours.
Their employer, Daoud and Partners, which provides food supplies to US troops in
Iraq, announced Tuesday that it would cease operations in the country to obtain
its drivers' release.