A wave of kindnappings in Iraq

Posted by Isam Rasheed on January 13, 2006. Filed under International,Iraq. Posted with the tags:Iraq
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Kidnappings are an everyday worry for Iraqi people. Most of those kidnapped are Iraqi.

There are two kinds of kidnappings going on in Iraq.

The first is the most common – kidnapping to extort money from the families of victims.

The criminals who carry these out existed before the occupation, but the occupation has grown the problem.

Why? Firstly, when the coalition forces occupied Iraq they were busy preparing their bases and left the weapons for the Iraqi Army in the street.

They let thieves rob the banks and the official departments and some of those thieves became kidnappers to get more money.

Additionally, the coalition left occupied Iraq without Iraqi authority for some months, enabling the gangs to grow.

The second type of kidnapping involves the taking of foreigners. These kidnappers don’t do it for money so much as political purposes. The hostages in these cases mostly get killed.

Mr Jawad Kathum is 31 years old and unemployed. His nephew was kidnapped by a Baghdad gang.

His family had to pay $20,000, Jawad having to sell his house to raise the money.

Blame

He blames the American forces, telling me:
“We didn’t hear any kidnapping happening before the occupation and (the Americans) don’t care about Iraqi security.
“They keep the security just for themselves and the Iraqi police are still weak. We, the Iraqis, are in the middle.”

Speaking about the kidnapping of foreigners, he continued:
“No one gets more benefit than the coalition forces, especially with foreign journalists and to prove that, you can make a comparison with Fallujah in April 2004 and in November 2004.
“In April, there were many foreign journalists and they reported what happened there.
“But in November, the US forces destroyed Fallujah, they used chemical bombs there and they killed Fallujah people in the street because there were no foreign journalists there and they didn’t allow access to Iraqi journalists.”

He would welcome foreign journalists to witness the reality of occupation, where coalition forces “destroy the cities, bombarding Iraqi houses  and arresting innocent people every day.
“They can come and see our bad conditions; no electricity, no drinking water, no petrol.”

On 26 November 2005, a group called True Swords Brigades kidnapped four foreigners from Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) in Ghazaliya, west Baghdad. They are: Tom Fox, 51, American human rights worker; Jim Lonely, 41, Canadian human rights worker; Harmeet Sooden, 32, from Canada; Norman Kember, 74, a retired radiation specialist from the UK.

A human rights worker from their team, Greg Rolens, commented:
“On the 26 November, my colleagues had an appointment with the Muslim Scholars’ Association and when they finished they called me to say they were ok; this was their routine.”

Since then, not a word.

Broadcasts

All he knows is what he hears via TV broadcasts.

Greg felt “numb” when he heard of the kidnap, though they had all been warned it was a possibility.

Greg is unclear as to why his colleagues were targeted.

“In the first footage we saw on TV, the kidnappers said they were spies working with the US government.
“They haven’t repeated that since because we had so many friends inside and outside Iraq stand up and say they are not spies.”

Greg believes the occupation has triggered such kidnappings.

“If the coalition had come to Iraq and rebuilt it, put in electricity, water, created jobs, I don’t think we would be seeing so many kidnappings.
“If they stopped attacking towns like Ramadi, Rawa, Tal-Afer, Heet and Al-Qaem, and stopped arbitrarily arresting people, there would be a lot less violence and kidnapping.”

The CPT did not seek help from coalition forces.“They are part of the occupation and (their involvement) would cause damage, even death to my colleagues.”

Despite the dangers, CPT activists do not stay in the highly protected Green Zone because if you do, says Greg, “You don’t get to talk to Iraqi people!
“We want to make peace, so we need to talk to the people in the street.
“I’ve spoken to the people who live in the Green Zone and they clearly haven’t met any actual Iraqis because they never venture out.”

Greg worries that the kidnappings suit the coalition forces just fine in that they give them an excuse to stay on endlessly, under the guise of “maintaining security”.