US to re-check if it detained NZ man in Iraq

4.00pm

UPDATE - The United States says it will re-check whether its troops had contact with New Zealander Andreas Schafer, who has made it to Jordan after being missing in Iraq for three months.

Mr Schafer's mother Ursula heard from her 26-year-old son yesterday.

He emailed from Jordan, saying Iraqi police detained him in early March in Diwaniya, 190km south of Baghdad, and then handed him over to the US.

"I was then held for nearly three months and interrogated by the US army on several occasions," he told the New Zealand Herald in an email.

"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."

Mr 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 is now in Amman, Jordan's capital.

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

However, the US Embassy in Wellington today said it had no evidence their troops had detained Mr Schafer.

"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."

Mr Schafer said he had been freed after British intervention.

"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," he said.

Mr Goff said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 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.

"We had no clear advice as to where and why Mr Schafer might have been in detention."

If it was the case that Mr Schafer was held in custody by the US army, "we would want an explanation of that, we would want an explanation of why New Zealand authorities were not properly advised".

"It may simply be that the overall chaos and lawlessness that exists in Iraq and the poor communication between areas and the centre are responsible for that breakdown in communication but I think we are owed an explanation."

There was "absolutely not" any suggestion New Zealand authorities knew but were told to keep quiet.

"I think any country will be concerned that another country has had custody over one of its nationals and there has been no explanation tendered and no advice given," Mr Goff said.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said she doubted there was any "conspiracy" by the US to withhold information.

"I think it probably relates more to the general chaos and disorder in Iraq than any deliberate decision to withhold something from the New Zealand Government," she said.

Helen Clark reiterated that New Zealanders should stay way from Iraq, saying it was highly dangerous and people who went there as "thrillseekers" or to work had to realise the situation they were putting themselves in.

Ms Burns said all the US Embassy could add was New Zealanders should think carefully before travelling to Iraq.

"We agree with... Prime Minister Helen Clark who has issued the 'gravest level of travel warning' possible and said, 'in the middle of an insurgency, Iraq is no place to be'."

- NZPA


Herald Feature: Iraq