Ex-hostage heads back to war zone

Harmeet Sooden will contribute to an art and story project for displaced and refugee children, among other roles. Photo / Chris Gorman

Auckland peace activist Harmeet Sooden is going back to Iraq, where he was held hostage for four months.

He admits to trepidation about returning to a region where hostages in orange boiler suits are being killed.

One of the three others taken hostage with Mr Sooden was Tom Fox, who was executed two weeks before soldiers saved the remaining captives.

"Seeing the hostages in orange jumpsuits brings back memories of Tom," Mr Sooden says.

But he says he was prompted by talk from the Government of committing Kiwi troops to the conflict zone.

He is aware of the increasing violence in the region but New Zealand's commitment meant going to help "became a personal responsibility".

Mr Sooden and three other aid workers from Christian Peacemaker Teams were taken hostage in 2005 by a group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness Brigade, now believed to have been a cell of al-Qaeda.

He and the two other surviving hostages were held for 118 days.

Yesterday, the 41-year-old said he was taking six weeks off his IT job in Grafton to travel to Iraqi Kurdistan.

"The risk of kidnapping and being killed is very low in Kurdistan. Relative to the risk in Iraq, it is very low.

"But, that said, Isis forces are staging attacks close to the capital."

Among his roles there, he would contribute to an art and story project for displaced and refugee children. He would also work on relationship-building between refugee and local communities, and with aid agencies.

Mr Sooden said the New Zealand Defence Force should not be part of an American-led coalition when United States policies "have had a devastating impact on Iraqi society".

Instead, he said New Zealand - as a United Nations security council member - should ask the UN to block the ability of Isis to wage war while increasing humanitarian aid and working to find a diplomatic solution.

He said the escalating conflict in the region was expected to increase the death toll on local communities caught up in the violence.