Glimmer of hope for hostage

By JUSTIN HUGGLER and SEVERIN CARRELL in Baghdad

The fate of kidnapped Iraqi humanitarian worker Margaret Hassan may depend on which group's hands she has fallen into.

A staggering number of kidnappings take place in Iraq, the vast majority for money.

Most of the victims are Iraqis, whose names never make it into the newspapers. They are held for ransom and generally released if the ransom is paid.

In the midst of all this operate a few groups of militants, the most prominent of them led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who capture their victims not to be held for ransom, but to kill them brutally in front of a camera for propaganda.

The cruel video in which Hassan is shown pleading for her life does not augur well.

But members of a criminal gang captured by Iraqi security forces admitted they were planning to film videos of their hostages, based on those of Zarqawi's group, to gain extra publicity and to increase the ransom money.

It does not just come down to who picks you up outside your villa in Baghdad, or from the back of a car on the lawless roads south of the capital.

There is believed to be a market for hostages, in which groups such as Zarqawi's offer cash to the hostage-takers in exchange for Western captives.

To the kidnappers, it's all the same whether they get their reward from your relatives for freeing you or from Zarqawi for handing you over.

More than 150 foreigners have been kidnapped by Islamist terrorists and local insurgents since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime last year, but few have hit the headlines.

Many have been ordinary civilian workers and contractors, including Turkish lorry drivers, Egyptians, Nepalese cooks, Japanese aid workers and Macedonian contractors.

Precise figures are hard to come by, but it is thought that at least 30 have been murdered by their captors - including a dozen Nepalese men.

Also among the dead are six Turks.

Australian journalist John Martinkus was released by his captors after being held for 24 hours.

But other captives suffer far worse fates. During the furore over the kidnapping and release of the two Italian charity workers, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, the capture and murder of another Italian national went largely unreported.

Iyad Anwar Wali, who died on October 2, was also half Turkish. He was forced to confess to being a "spy" and was shot on camera.

Hassan's husband, Tahseen Ali Hassan, says British Prime Minister Tony Blair has put his wife's life in grave danger by proclaiming to the media that his Government is trying to secure her release, effectively turning Hassan, who has Iraqi citizenship, has lived in Iraq for 30 years and considers herself Iraqi, into a British cause.

- INDEPENDENT

Herald Feature: Iraq