Monday, 28 November 2005LONDON (Reuters) - The government said on Monday it was urgently investigating reports that a Briton had been kidnapped along with three other foreign aid workers in Iraq, but had no concrete news.
Norman Kember, 74, an aid worker from northwest London, went missing on Saturday on his first visit to Iraq along with two Canadians and an American in a violent neighbourhood of western Baghdad.
"We are working on the basis that it is indeed a kidnapping but we have no further confirmation," Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told reporters at a Euro-Med summit in Barcelona.
"I discussed this matter this morning with foreign minister Zebari of Iraq. He has pledged every assistance from the Iraqi government," he added, stressing that the government would not pay if a ransom were demanded.
Kember was representing a number of aid groups in Iraq, his wife, Pat, was quoted as saying by the BBC.
"People are being very, very good to me and I am being supported," she said.
It is the first kidnapping of foreigners in Baghdad since an Irish journalist was abducted in October. The journalist, Rory Carroll, was released unharmed after 36 hours.
Earlier this year and during last year, there was a spate of abductions of foreigners. More than 100 were seized in all, and dozens were executed by their kidnappers, who posted videos of some of the executions on the Internet.
Over the same period, hundreds of Iraqis have been kidnapped by criminal gangs and militants, either for ransom or to put pressure on the Iraqi government as it tries to face down a violent insurgency.
Reuters via swissinfo |
Monday, 28 November 2005
swissinfo.org
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