NZ man thought he would be freed from Iraqi jail within days

1.00pm

A New Zealand man detained in Iraq for three months turned down a phonecall home early on in his imprisonment because he thought he would be freed within days.

Andreas Schafer was in Iraq on his "life trip" and days away from leaving Iraq before he lost contact with his family and disappeared in March.

He emailed his mother Jordan on Monday saying Iraqi police detained him in early March in Diwaniya, 190km south of Baghdad, and then handed him over to the US. He is now in Amman, Jordan's capital.

The US Embassy in Wellington said yesterday it had no evidence their troops had detained Mr Schafer, but would be rechecking.

Mr Schafer told National Radio today he had initially been stopped by Iraqi police, who passed him on to US forces.

"I was (interrogated) by the US... four times. Every three weeks they called me up and gave me a half hour interrogation. They said we didn't know you were here, and it was like they were starting again from the beginning every time."

On his second day in detention Mr Schafer was offered a phone call, which he declined.

"I thought it would be all over in three days and there was no need to cause any alarm, but after that I didn't get the option any more. I asked several times along the way through and they said no, we can't do it now."

Eventually after six weeks Iraqi officers gave him a five minute call, when he rang him mother in New Plymouth. Ursula Schafer then contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who Mr Schafer said "did what they could."

Mr Schafer had been in Afghanistan before heading for Iraq to do computer work for a non-governmental organisation. While in Diwaniya en route to Kerbala in Iraq he went to see a religious rally, and was picked up by local police.

"They took probably half an hour, then they said they had no real problem with me but they were just going to take me over to the American base. I went over there and they looked at my passport and saw it had Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran and said 'This is a problem, you'll have to wait a while while we do some background checks."

For most of his three months in detention Mr Schafer was held in police cells in Diwaniya. He was then moved to Diwaniya Prison before being moved to a US detainee centre in Al Kut.

Physically he was under the control of the Iraqi police but at the orders of the US, Mr Schafer said.

"They (the police) told me several times, they kept apologising to me saying we don't want to hold you there but we have no choice in the matter. We have to hold you until we get further notice from the US."

Conditions were basic but reasonably clean, Mr Schafer said.

He acknowledged he had gone to a dangerous country, and had done so fully expecting "big brother" wouldn't bail him out if he got into trouble.

However, he was annoyed the Americans hadn't contacted his family.

Yesterday Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff said the US never advised New Zealand they were holding a New Zealander in Iraq.

Mr Goff said the Ministry would contact Mr Schafer to get his explanation of events.

The Government would then raise with US authorities "why we were not advised and why no contact or attempt to make contact was made with New Zealand authorities" over Mr Schafer's detention.

"It is not satisfactory that a New Zealand national has been held in detention without his country being advised of his whereabouts and why he was being held," Mr Goff said.

The US Embassy in Wellington yesterday said there was no record of Mr Schafer being in contact with their troops in Iraq.

"When the situation was first brought to our attention we investigated thoroughly and found no evidence that Andreas Schafer had been in contact with US troops in Iraq," US Embassy spokeswoman Janine Burns said in a statement.

"We still have no evidence that any interaction occurred but, based on recent media reports, we are checking again."

Yesterday Ursula Schafer said her son's release was due to the goodwill of the Iraqi people. She said some local people who knew Andreas risked a lot to get word to New Zealand as to where he was being held.

"They knew he had done nothing wrong," she said.

"The Iraqi police were very friendly and gave him extra portions of food -- although it was just rice and beans every day," she said.

Mr Schafer had told her he had been told stories of men with tales far worse than his.

"He was with mostly Iraqi prisoners, and he spent the time talking to them.

"He said listening to their stories made his story very insignificant -- it was tragic."

- NZPA