Dialogue lifts hope hostages will be safe

Mediators are talking to the kidnappers of Auckland student Harmeet Sooden and three other peace activists on the eve of a deadline today on which their lives hinge.

The Times newspaper in Britain has reported the mediators have taken heart because the captors' statements show they are monitoring appeals for the men's release.

The Swords of Righteousness Brigade would have seen the statement by Abu Qatada, who is jailed in Britain for alleged links to al-Qaeda, and who has called for the members of the Christian Peacemaker Team, abducted two weeks ago, to be freed.

The kidnappers have called for the United States and the United Kingdom to release all Iraqi prisoners by today.

As concern escalated for the men's safety after the Briton and American of the group were seen in orange jumpsuits, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw repeated that although his Government could not give in to the kidnappers' demands, it was willing to talk to the kidnappers and had people waiting in Iraq.

On Wednesday, he said his Government was open to hearing from the hostage-takers, but that the group's demands were ones "plainly no Government could meet."

Mr Sooden's brother in law, Mark Brewer, was yesterday hopeful the deadline would bring Mr Sooden's release.

Both he and Preety, Mr Sooden's sister, were trying to work "to keep us active and get us out of the house."

"We're just sitting and waiting. It still seems unreal, but exhaustion is the prominent emotion for us at the moment.

The Times reported that security sources in Iraq were concerned that if the execution of another hostage, Ronald Schulz, was true, it could be bad for the Christian Peacemaker Team.

Mr Sooden was taken hostage two weeks ago, along with fellow Canadian James Loney, 41, Briton Norman Kember, 74, and US citizen Tom Fox, 54.

Diplomats were still investigating the veracity of the reported execution of US engineer Ronald Schulz, who was taken by a different group to the kidnappers of Mr Sooden.

A statement was posted on a web site often used by insurgents that Schulz was killed because the US would not give in to its demands, which included freeing Iraqi prisoners.

Yesterday Moazzam Begg, a Briton Muslim who was detained at the US base in Guantanamo Bay, added to calls from the Muslim community.

"When we were first granted release by Allah's mercy, we came home to find that there were people who opposed their Government in their brutal war waged against Afghanistan and Iraq and stood on the side of justice," he told BBC television. "And they were not Muslims."

"It is our sincerest belief that Norman Kember, the 74-year-old Briton, and those with him are amongst those people, the many people, who opposed this war from the beginning and were only in Iraq to promote human rights for the oppressed," he said.

"We ... hope that our words will encourage you to show mercy to these men and set them free."

The treatment of the American and British hostages, Mr Kember and Mr Fox, appears to be distinct from that of the Canadian pair - in an earlier video, Mr Sooden and Mr Loney had their hands and feet untied and were at a food-laden table, while Mr Kember and Mr Fox were standing and shackled.

In Wednesday's video, Mr Sooden and Mr Loney were not shown, but Mr Kember and Mr Fox were blindfolded, chained and wearing orange jumpsuits. This is seen as an ominous development because the overalls are considered a symbolic reference to those worn by Guantanamo Bay hostages. Other hostages, including Ken Bigley, the British engineer who was beheaded by his captors last year, were shown in orange overalls before their execution.