Chinese abducted in Iraq
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| Wed, 04-14-2004 - 1:21pm |
14 April, 2004
CHINA - IRAQ
Chinese abducted in Iraq earned only 3 dollars a day
Hong Kong (AsiaNews/SCMP) – The Italian security and body guards abducted in Iraq, whose capture is linked to a ring of mercenaries, earned about 900-1000 dollars a day. The seven Chinese kidnapped and freed in Falluja earned only about 3 dollars a day.
The English-language Hong Kong newspaper, South China Morning Post, published a small behind-the-scenes article today on the lives of the abducted far east citizens. The article says that were invited to come to Iraq with promises of healthy monthly earnings (5000-6000 yuan or 625-750 euro). According to the Chinese daily, Jiefang, the Chinese workers had to pay 23,800 yuan (around 3000 euro) to a middleman in order to be accepted into the group of immigrants. In citizens’ home province of Fujian, the seven former fishermen and farmers could earn about 900 yuan (100 euro) a month.
The seven men, between the ages of 18 and 49, had traveled to Iraq to repaint a hotel. Yet upon their arrival there were sent to hard labor jobs and paid barely enough to survive.
Lin Kongmin, 18, is the youngest of the group. His uncle, Lin Zhenghua said his family didn’t know that there was war in Iraq. His finally is still in financial difficulty. Lin Kongmin’s father has just suffered a small heart attack and still needs to work to maintain his two children
On interesting fact is that Fujian authorities has for quite some time alerted citizens about the risks of going to work in Iraq. Yet organizations gathering together teams of manual labor distribute fliers and advertisements everywhere offering work in Iraq.
The father of Lin Jingbing, another of the released Chinese workers, said that “a middleman†had come to his house “saying that the war was overâ€. “He said that there were projects worth millions of yuan and that a worker like my son was needed.â€
Chinese authorities say they never gave the seven permission to work in or travel to Iraq. And yet the hostages had all their permits in order, while it is not known how or when they obtained them.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apmideast_story.asp?category=1107&slug=Iraq%20Italian%20Hostage
Wednesday, April 14, 2004 · Last updated 2:56 p.m. PT
Al-Jazeera: Italian hostage killed on tape
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAIRO, Egypt -- An Italian hostage in Iraq was killed and his death recorded on a videotape received by Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based network said Wednesday.
The network aired a short segment of the video showing the four Italian hostages sitting on the ground, holding up their passports and surrounded by armed men. Al-Jazeera said the death of one of the Italians is captured on the tape as well but that it declined to broadcast the footage.
The network refused to say how it received the tape.
The four Italian security guards were abducted Monday. Three were working for a U.S.-based company while a fourth was employed by a Seychelles-based firm, Italian officials said.
An Iranian delegation had been headed to Baghdad to try to win their release.
The tape was accompanied by a statement from a previously unknown group calling itself the Green Battalion, which threatened to "kill the three remaining Italian hostages one after the other, if their demands are not met," Al-Jazeera said.
The statement, read by an Al-Jazeera anchor, accused Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi of caring more about his "masters in the White House than his own people."
The group demanded the withdrawal U.S. forces from Iraq "according to a timetable" and that Berlusconi "apologize for his wrongs against Islam." It also called for the release of all religious clerics being held in Iraq.
In Rome, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said late Wednesday that the government had no confirmation of the killing.
"Obviously, we hope this news turns out to be false," he said on Italian television. "The kidnappers are, as you said, a group of bandits, not tied organically to any group."
Al-Jazeera spokesman Jihad Ballout would not say how the station received the tape. "Al-Jazeera does not comment on these details."
The station has said previous tapes sent by militant groups have been dropped off at their office in Baghdad.
cl-nwtreehugger
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Japan%20Iraq%20Hostages
Wednesday, April 14, 2004 · Last updated 10:54 a.m. PT
Report: 2 more Japanese abducted in Iraq
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOKYO -- The Japanese government was investigating a news report that two more Japanese had been abducted in Iraq, an official said Thursday.
A Kyodo News service report said an unidentified Japanese organization had received an e-mail saying the two were abducted Wednesday.
The Japanese were abducted in Abu Ghraib, a district about 7 miles west of central Baghdad where gunmen have repeatedly attacked convoys and battled U.S. forces, the report said.
The two may have been on their way to cover the emergency landing of a U.S. military helicopter, the report said, suggesting they were journalists.
Kyodo reported that the Japanese lived in a Baghdad apartment, but quoted neighbors as saying they had not seen the two since Tuesday and their belongings were still in their rooms.
A foreign ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the government was looking into the report but had not confirmed the reported abduction.
The Kyodo report did not say who sent the e-mail about the kidnappings.
Three Japanese citizens have been held by militants in Iraq since last week. The captors threatened to kill the hostages unless Japan withdrew its troops from southern Iraq, where they are on a humanitarian and reconstruction mission.
The government has said its troops will stay.
cl-nwtreehugger
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apmideast_story.asp?category=1107&slug=Iraq%20Kidnappings
Wednesday, April 14, 2004 · Last updated 1:40 p.m. PT
Kidnapped French journalist freed in Iraq
By JIM KRANE
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Visibly shaken and exhausted, a French television journalist taken hostage in Iraq was freed Wednesday after a four-day ordeal he said was marked by constant movement and threats to his life.
Alexandre Jordanov, who works for Capa Television in Paris, was kidnapped Sunday while videotaping a U.S. military convoy under attack. He was released unharmed at a mosque in Baghdad.
Jordanov told France-2 television in an interview from the Iraqi capital that he was rammed with rifle butts, sometimes blindfolded and routinely threatened.
American experts, meanwhile, conducted tests Wednesday to determine whether four bodies discovered west of Baghdad are the remains of private U.S. contractors missing since an assault on their convoy Friday.
Japan was investigating a news report Wednesday that two Japanese freelance journalists were abducted in a Baghdad suburb. Three Japanese are among at least 21 foreigners who have been abducted and are still being held since the beginning of this month.
The report by Kyodo News service said an unidentified Japanese organization had received an e-mail saying the two were abducted.
Japan's Foreign Ministry "strongly advised" Japanese journalists to leave Iraq, and repeated an advisory urging all Japanese in Iraq to evacuate. There are reportedly about 70 Japanese nationals in the country, mostly journalists and aid workers.
An Iranian delegation, meanwhile, was headed to Baghdad to help in trying to gain the release of four Italian security guards working for a U.S.-based company who were abducted Monday, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said.
Frattini advocated "looking into every means of obtaining the release of the Italians and all the hostages" without negotiating with the kidnappers.
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi ruled out a withdrawal of troops based in the southern city of Nasiriyah.
Also Wednesday, the Russian Embassy in Baghdad was preparing a list of about 800 specialists to be evacuated. Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations was to send seven flights from Moscow to Baghdad and Kuwait starting Thursday to evacuate the citizens from Russia and former Soviet republics, spokesman Viktor Beltsov said.
The move comes after three Russian and five Ukrainian employees of a Russian energy company were kidnapped by masked gunmen who broke into their Baghdad house on Monday. The Interenergoservis employees were released unharmed the next day.
Jordanov, the French journalist freed Wednesday, said his abductors switched his location eight times, passing him from one armed group to another.
"It was: 'We're going to cut your throat' to 'You're part of the Mossad,'" Jordanov said, referring to the Israeli secret service.
Herve Chabalier, president of Capa, told LCI television that negotiations with Sunni religious authorities led to Jordanov's release.
Jordanov, 40, disappeared south of Baghdad while traveling with cameraman Ivan Ceriex, who was also kidnapped Sunday and released the next day. The men were separated after trying to film a gunbattle between Iraqi fighters and a U.S. convoy.
Ceriex was picked up by a group of armed Sunni fighters and was released after he convinced his kidnappers he was French. France opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq last year and has no troops participating in the occupation.
France has strongly urged its citizens to leave Iraq, saying that they could be mistaken for nationals from countries participating in the U.S. military coalition. There are fewer than 100 French citizens in Iraq, largely journalists, aid workers and the employees of private companies.
A U.S. spokesman said Tuesday that 40 foreigners from 12 countries are being held by kidnappers - but an Associated Press count put the number at 21, with Wednesday's release of the French journalist.
Two U.S. soldiers and seven employees of Kellogg, Brown and Root, a Halliburton subsidiary, have been missing since their convoy was attacked Friday on the main highway west of Baghdad.
One of the missing - Thomas Hamill, a 43-year-old truck driver - is known to have been abducted. His captors have threatened to kill and mutilate him unless U.S. troops ended their assault on Fallujah. The deadline passed Sunday with no word on his fate. Halliburton would not give the nationalities of the six others.
The Philippines - a staunch U.S. ally - said Wednesday it was considering whether to withdraw its nearly 100 troops from Iraq.
"The decision on whether or not to withdraw our peacekeeping forces will depend on the security situation in Iraq in the days to come," President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said.
The Philippine military and police contingent in Iraq has suffered no fatalities.
cl-nwtreehugger
These "middlemen" are akin to the 'coyotes' that bring poor desperate people into the US.
>"Chinese authorities say they never gave the seven permission to work in or travel to Iraq. And yet the hostages had all their permits in order, while it is not known how or when they obtained them. "<
I'll take a guess, bribery. Most anything can be obtained if the price is right.