Kidnapped Aussie's hopes rest with local mediators

CANBERRA - Australia has turned to religious and tribal leaders for help in winning the release of 63-year-old Douglas Wood, the United States-based engineer kidnapped by insurgents in Iraq at the weekend.

Wood appeared on a video released by his captors pleading for his life and for the withdrawal of Australian, American and British troops.

Although promised help by Washington and the United Nations, Australian officials admit that the chances of Wood being released alive are slim, and that the best hopes lie with locals able to negotiate with the group calling itself the Shura Council of the Mujahideen of Iraq.

Prime Minister John Howard has reaffirmed that Australia will neither withdraw its troops nor pay any ransom. "That's not going to happen," he said.

A team drawn from the Foreign Affairs Department, Defence and the Australian Federal Police have been sent to Iraq to help negotiate a release despite mounting concerns for Wood's safety.

Defence Minister Robert Hill, who was in Iraq when Wood was captured, said yesterday that given the history of hostage-taking in the country, he was not confident the engineer would be released.

"I certainly hope he is saved and the federal Government will do all that we can to achieve that objective."

Two Australians previously abducted in Iraq - Sydney Shiite cleric Sheik Mohamed Alsibiyani, who was held by Sunni rebels for four days, and journalist John Martinkus, who was held briefly in Baghdad - were released unharmed.

But of about 200 foreigners abducted in Iraq since the war, 33 have been executed and another 50 are believed to still be in captivity.

Analysts say Wood's best hope lies in the possibility that his captors are seeking a ransom, rather than being religious or political insurgents, as his video message implied.

Wood said his abductors were "fiercely patriotic" and believed in a strong Iraq forging its own destiny.

"We are very concerned," Howard told ABC TV. "We shouldn't imagine that this is a group that has only in the past been associated with ransoming.

"There seems to be two different patterns of kidnapping. There is hostage-taking for political reasons - and we fear this is one of those - and there are others where it's a commercial operation, and there are some groups that do both."

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the best chance of negotiating Wood's release rested with the help of religious and tribal leaders.

In a number of cases where hostages have been released, "it has been either tribal or religious leaders that have played a key role in facilitating that recovery".

Briton Paul Bigley, whose brother Ken was killed after being abducted in Baghdad last year, told ABC radio that Wood's family should appeal directly to the kidnappers through Arabic television.