HELEX
04-17-2004, 11:43 AM
Insurgents want to trade U.S. soldier for prisoners
Japanese civilians freed
Saturday, April 17, 2004 Posted: 10:51 AM EDT (1451 GMT)
(CNN) -- The armed insurgents holding a U.S. Army soldier in Iraq said they want to trade the American for prisoners being held by the coalition.
Pfc. Keith Matthew Maupin, a reservist from Batavia, Ohio, is one of several foreign nationals who have been kidnapped in Iraq in recent days.
Two Japanese civilians were freed on Saturday. An Italian hostage was killed earlier this week.
The Arabic-language television network Al-Jazeera aired footage on Friday of Maupin with hooded men, including four holding rifles and one with a pistol, standing behind him.
Military authorities were able to look at the videotape before it was aired and a senior coalition official said Maupin appears to be in good health and shows "no characteristics of having been tortured" or roughed up.
"He's obviously scared, but anyone in that situation would be as well," the official said. Soldiers generally are given a code of conduct to follow if captured, he added.
Several hundred people gathered Friday in Maupin's hometown to show support for him and his family. (Full story)
"We have viewed the videotape of Matt, as all of you have, I'm sure, and our family is very happy and prays for Matt's safety," spokesman Carl Cottrell said, reading a statement from Maupin's family.(Full story)
Maupin, who does not appear to have shaved in several days, wears a camouflage hat in the video.
"We have taken one of the U.S. soldiers hostage," the narrator said.
"He is in good health and being treated based on the tenets of Islamic law for the treatment of soldiers taken hostage. We will keep him until we trade him for our prisoners in the custody of the U.S. enemy. We want them to know -- and the whole world to know -- that when we took him in, he came out of his tank holding a white flag and he lay face down on the ground, just like other soldiers."
U.S. Central Command spokesman Capt. Bruce Frame said Maupin is one of two U.S. soldiers unaccounted for since last Friday, when their fuel convoy came under attack by rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire near Baghdad.
CNN's Jamie McIntyre explained that Maupin is considered a hostage, and not a prisoner of war, because he is being held in exchange for something -- in this case, the release of prisoners being held by U.S. forces.
Also missing since the attack is Sgt. Elmer Krause, 40, of Greensboro, North Carolina. Both he and Maupin, 20, of Batavia, Ohio, were with the Army's 724th Transportation Company out of Bartonsville, Illinois.
Six civilian contractors of the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root are also missing since the fuel convoy attack.
Another KBR contractor, Thomas Hamill, a truck driver from Macon, Mississippi, has been seen on videotape in the custody of armed men with their faces covered.
His captors said they would kill him on Easter Sunday if the United States did not withdraw its troops from the Sunni city of Fallujah. The deadline to meet demands from his captors has come and gone.
Japanese civilians freed
The two Japanese citizens, who had been listed as missing this week, were released on Saturday at the Japanese Embassy in Baghdad, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.
Three other Japanese civilians -- a journalist, an aid worker and a health researcher -- were released Thursday. They were abducted April 8.
Militants seized the trio last week and threatened to burn them alive if demands for Japan to pull its troops from Iraq were not met.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi -- a staunch supporter of the U.S. in Iraq -- refused to do so and hailed their release.
Czech journalists describe ordeal
Three Czech journalists held hostage in Iraq say they were moved from place to place by their abductors and handed off to different groups during their captivity.
The three are journalists Michael Kubal and Petr Klima from Czech TV, and Vit Pohanka from Czech Radio. They were taken near Fallujah this week and freed Friday.
Kubal told CNN "there was a checkpoint with some militiamen, and we were kept there and then taken blindfolded to one place, and then they checked if we were journalists and from the Czech Republic.
"We were then taken another hour by car and taken to another place in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the desert. It was a former car machine workshop about seven meters by four meters, and [we were] kept there for six days."
Kubal said it was "a bit complicated" to talk to the captors "because we're not perfect in Arabic and they were not perfect in English."
"The worst moment for us was when it was clear we had a problem that would not be solved in a day, and the best moment was when we stepped inside the door of the Czech Embassy in Baghdad."
He described his captors as anticoalition forces but gave no names.
Other developments
A Syrian-born Canadian who was held hostage in Iraq was also been released on Friday, a spokesman for the International Rescue Committee.
A Danish citizen is missing and believed to be held hostage in Iraq, according to a statement released Friday from the Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
An Australian peace activist claimed Friday she was kidnapped and held for 20 hours by Muslim fighters in Fallujah, Iraq. Donna Mulhearn told Sydney radio stations she and three other foreign humanitarian workers were seized Wednesday by heavily armed rebels as they tried to leave Fallujah. Mulhearn's claims could not immediately be verified. She previously made headlines when she acted as a human shield in Baghdad before last year's U.S.-led invasion.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/04/17/iraq.hostages/index.html
Japanese civilians freed
Saturday, April 17, 2004 Posted: 10:51 AM EDT (1451 GMT)
(CNN) -- The armed insurgents holding a U.S. Army soldier in Iraq said they want to trade the American for prisoners being held by the coalition.
Pfc. Keith Matthew Maupin, a reservist from Batavia, Ohio, is one of several foreign nationals who have been kidnapped in Iraq in recent days.
Two Japanese civilians were freed on Saturday. An Italian hostage was killed earlier this week.
The Arabic-language television network Al-Jazeera aired footage on Friday of Maupin with hooded men, including four holding rifles and one with a pistol, standing behind him.
Military authorities were able to look at the videotape before it was aired and a senior coalition official said Maupin appears to be in good health and shows "no characteristics of having been tortured" or roughed up.
"He's obviously scared, but anyone in that situation would be as well," the official said. Soldiers generally are given a code of conduct to follow if captured, he added.
Several hundred people gathered Friday in Maupin's hometown to show support for him and his family. (Full story)
"We have viewed the videotape of Matt, as all of you have, I'm sure, and our family is very happy and prays for Matt's safety," spokesman Carl Cottrell said, reading a statement from Maupin's family.(Full story)
Maupin, who does not appear to have shaved in several days, wears a camouflage hat in the video.
"We have taken one of the U.S. soldiers hostage," the narrator said.
"He is in good health and being treated based on the tenets of Islamic law for the treatment of soldiers taken hostage. We will keep him until we trade him for our prisoners in the custody of the U.S. enemy. We want them to know -- and the whole world to know -- that when we took him in, he came out of his tank holding a white flag and he lay face down on the ground, just like other soldiers."
U.S. Central Command spokesman Capt. Bruce Frame said Maupin is one of two U.S. soldiers unaccounted for since last Friday, when their fuel convoy came under attack by rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire near Baghdad.
CNN's Jamie McIntyre explained that Maupin is considered a hostage, and not a prisoner of war, because he is being held in exchange for something -- in this case, the release of prisoners being held by U.S. forces.
Also missing since the attack is Sgt. Elmer Krause, 40, of Greensboro, North Carolina. Both he and Maupin, 20, of Batavia, Ohio, were with the Army's 724th Transportation Company out of Bartonsville, Illinois.
Six civilian contractors of the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root are also missing since the fuel convoy attack.
Another KBR contractor, Thomas Hamill, a truck driver from Macon, Mississippi, has been seen on videotape in the custody of armed men with their faces covered.
His captors said they would kill him on Easter Sunday if the United States did not withdraw its troops from the Sunni city of Fallujah. The deadline to meet demands from his captors has come and gone.
Japanese civilians freed
The two Japanese citizens, who had been listed as missing this week, were released on Saturday at the Japanese Embassy in Baghdad, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.
Three other Japanese civilians -- a journalist, an aid worker and a health researcher -- were released Thursday. They were abducted April 8.
Militants seized the trio last week and threatened to burn them alive if demands for Japan to pull its troops from Iraq were not met.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi -- a staunch supporter of the U.S. in Iraq -- refused to do so and hailed their release.
Czech journalists describe ordeal
Three Czech journalists held hostage in Iraq say they were moved from place to place by their abductors and handed off to different groups during their captivity.
The three are journalists Michael Kubal and Petr Klima from Czech TV, and Vit Pohanka from Czech Radio. They were taken near Fallujah this week and freed Friday.
Kubal told CNN "there was a checkpoint with some militiamen, and we were kept there and then taken blindfolded to one place, and then they checked if we were journalists and from the Czech Republic.
"We were then taken another hour by car and taken to another place in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the desert. It was a former car machine workshop about seven meters by four meters, and [we were] kept there for six days."
Kubal said it was "a bit complicated" to talk to the captors "because we're not perfect in Arabic and they were not perfect in English."
"The worst moment for us was when it was clear we had a problem that would not be solved in a day, and the best moment was when we stepped inside the door of the Czech Embassy in Baghdad."
He described his captors as anticoalition forces but gave no names.
Other developments
A Syrian-born Canadian who was held hostage in Iraq was also been released on Friday, a spokesman for the International Rescue Committee.
A Danish citizen is missing and believed to be held hostage in Iraq, according to a statement released Friday from the Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
An Australian peace activist claimed Friday she was kidnapped and held for 20 hours by Muslim fighters in Fallujah, Iraq. Donna Mulhearn told Sydney radio stations she and three other foreign humanitarian workers were seized Wednesday by heavily armed rebels as they tried to leave Fallujah. Mulhearn's claims could not immediately be verified. She previously made headlines when she acted as a human shield in Baghdad before last year's U.S.-led invasion.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/04/17/iraq.hostages/index.html