Mother pleads for son's freedom

Harmeet Sooden at a Palestinian human rights demonstration in Auckland.

Harmeet Singh Sooden's mother has made a simple but impassioned televised plea to his Iraqi captors to lift a threat to execute him and three other humanitarian volunteers.

"I pray that those who are holding Harmeet will look into their hearts, see the good that is in my son, and release him and his companions unharmed," Manjeet Kaur Sooden was filmed saying yesterday at her daughter's Blockhouse Bay home.

Unwavering but struggling to hold back tears, she said: "Harmeet is a much-loved son and a peace-loving man - he went to Iraq to do good."

TV3 said last night that it was relaying Mrs Sooden's straight-to-the-point appeal to the Arab TV channel al-Jazeera, which on Saturday showed a video recording of her 32-year-old Auckland University student son taken by his captors from the "Swords of the Righteous Brigade".

It came with a threat to kill Mr Sooden and fellow members of their Christian Peacemaker Teams delegation captured nine days ago, unless all prisoners in Iraq and United States detention centres were freed by Thursday.

A spokeswoman from al-Jazeera last night told the Herald the channel had not yet been contacted about Mrs Sooden's video plea, but it would be played if received.

She said it was not uncommon for the station to air such footage "maybe many times" during news bulletins.

And if the captors contacted the channel in response to such a tape, al-Jazeera would publish that too.

Although the kidnappers' ultimatum initially stunned Mr Sooden's family, brother-in-law Mark Brewer said that at least they now knew they were dealing with people with political rather than criminal aims.

"We are still very positive - if people have a cause you can generally work with them."

Mr Brewer said the family were buoyed by growing support for releasing the hostages unharmed, internationally and within Iraq.

American philosopher Noam Chomsky, Indian author Arundhati Roy and consumer champion Ralph Nader are among more than 7000 anti-war figures to sign a petition calling for their release and noting past efforts by CPT to alert the world to the predicament of Iraqi detainees.

The petition, to which Green MP Keith Locke added his name yesterday, says CPT workers were among the first to document abuses at Abu Ghraib prison and that each of the hostages "has dedicated his life to resisting the darkness and misery of war and occupation".

Mr Brewer said: "This is pretty heavy stuff and if these guys give it some thought, as I'm sure they are doing, they will have to let him go - they have definitely got the wrong people."

London's Observer newspaper says five Sunni Islamic groups inside Iraq have joined calls to release the hostages, after the arrival there of prominent anti-war activist Anas Altikriti, a former president of the Muslim Association of Britain.

The Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand, which believes the Iraq invasion was unwarranted, has also appealed to the hostage-takers to let the men go.

"They've got the wrong people," said federation president Javed Khan. "These people are peaceful people. They went there for the support of the Iraqis."

Although Mr Sooden has been in New Zealand for almost three years and has residency here, he remains a citizen of Canada and the Government says it is leaving it to Canada to take the diplomatic lead in freeing him.

But Mr Khan joined Mr Locke and New Zealand First MP Ron Mark in calling on the Government to do more, given this country's well-known opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Auckland University Students for Justice in Palestine, of which Mr Sooden is a member, is planning a vigil in Aotea Square tonight.

Although Mr Brewer has criticised the tardiness of New Zealand officials in contacting his family, he said they started making up for that on Friday.

He was grateful for a message of support on his voicemail from Prime Minister Helen Clark.

Several officials had told him she had phoned them to tell them to do what they could for the family, which included helping Mr Sooden's father to obtain a visa to join the family in Auckland from his home in Zambia.

- Additional reporting Derek Cheng