NZ traveller held in Iraq by US Army

By AINSLEY THOMSON

EXCLUSIVE - The United States Army held a New Zealander in prison in Iraq for nearly three months while American representatives denied any knowledge of his whereabouts.

New Plymouth man Andreas Schafer, 26, vanished in Iraq in March, sparking a frantic search by his mother for information.

In an emailed response to Herald questions, Mr Schafer has told how he was detained in an Iraqi prison for nearly three months and interrogated repeatedly by the US Army before being freed yesterday.

Mr Schafer, who is now in Amman, Jordan, said in the email that he had been in Afghanistan, where he was developing software for a non-governmental organisation, when he decided to head overland via Iran to Iraq to do similar work in Baghdad.

But in early March, when he reached the city of Diwaniya, 190km south of Baghdad, he was detained by Iraqi police, who handed him over to the United States.

"I was then held for nearly three months and interrogated by the US Army on several occasions.

"Each time they questioned me they said it was the first they had heard I was being detained and that the investigation was starting from the beginning.

"Eventually the British consul got involved one way or another (probably notified by New Zealand Foreign Affairs) and then I was out within a week."

Mr Schafer's mother, Ursula, said from her home in New Plymouth that the reason for her son's detention was complicated.

"It's a long story. I don't want to get into that. He definitely has done nothing wrong, but it is just the situation in Iraq that makes you very vulnerable."

She said her son and a number of other foreign nationals were picked up by the Iraqi police the day after a serious bomb attack.

"Initially they told him it would take two days and he would be out. Then the two days turned into a week and another week ... "

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Jonathan Schwass said it was understood Mr Schafer was detained in Iraq over entry formalities, but that was not certain. The ministry had not talked to him.

His release was negotiated with the help of the British and American authorities in Iraq.

The US Embassy in Wellington said it could not comment because it had not received the latest reports.

But last month when news of Mr Schafer's detention in Iraq first broke, the embassy said it had no evidence that he had been in contact with US troops there.

Mrs Schafer said she heard about her son's detention via an email sent by a third party.

"He [Andreas] was not allowed to send us any emails. It was from someone who helped him in secret. That is why we had to be very careful, because they had put themselves at risk. We are very grateful to them, otherwise we would never have had any message."

Mrs Schafer then contacted the ministry, who tried to locate her son.

But initial inquiries through Washington and London established that they had no information.

Mrs Schafer confirmed that at first the Americans had said they had not detained her son.

But working through other channels, which she declined to specify, the family found out where he was being held and eventually he was found.

In mid-April, Foreign Affairs told the Herald that its inquiries through the American and British authorities established they had no information about Mr Schafer.

Two weeks later, on April 27, the ministry confirmed Mr Schafer was being detained, but was not sure if it was the Iraqi police or the coalition administration.

Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff could not be reached for comment last night. But Green MP Keith Locke said it was unacceptable for a New Zealander to be held for so long.

It was important to know what information the US had given the New Zealand Government during the time Mr Schafer was held, and what the Government had done about it.

Mrs Schafer spoke to her son for two hours yesterday for the first time in three months.

"I'm really happy to have him out of the country. He is in good spirits and he is very happy to be out."

Her son planned to continue his OE. "It would be nice to see him. But I do know him and I'm not surprised he has decided to carry on."