Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=7/31/2004

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=IRAQ/HOSTAGES (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-317945(CQ)

BYLINE=CHALLISS McDONOUGH

DATELINE=BAGHDAD

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

/// EDS: Re-running w/headline ///

HEADLINE: An Iraqi mediator hopes seven hostages will be released

INTRO: An Iraqi mediator negotiating the release of seven foreign hostages says he is confident that they will be released. He says the Kuwaiti company employing them has sent a representative to Baghdad. The kidnappers have threatened to start killing the men if no progress is made before a deadline that has been extended to Saturday night. VOA's Challiss McDonough has interviewed the mediator and has this report.

TEXT: Squeaky ceiling fans struggle to keep the room cool in the sweltering Iraqi summer as an assistant hands Sheikh Hisham al-Dulaymi a letter that has just been faxed from Kuwait.

/// NAT SOUND, PAPER RUSTLING AND FANS ///

The company employing seven abducted truck drivers has sent a representative to negotiate for their release, and this letter is his credential. The sheikh is pleased.

/// AL-DULAYMI ACT -IN ARABIC, ESTABLISH AND FADE ///

He says the negotiations will make some progress now. They have sent someone to represent them. His name is Mehdi Saleh. Seven employees are being held, and the kidnappers have made demands of the company.

Scores of people have been kidnapped in Iraq over the last several months, most of them civilian employees of companies doing reconstruction work. At least eight victims have been killed, four by beheading. Many different groups have claimed responsibility for the abductions. The motive is sometimes political, sometimes financial.

In this case, the victims are three Indian citizens, three Kenyans and an Egyptian. Their abductors, a group calling itself the Holders of the Black Banners, threatened to start killing them Friday night if negotiations did not start. They then pushed back the deadline till Saturday.

The kidnappers snatched the truck drivers on July 21st. They have demanded that the Kuwaiti company withdraw from Iraq, and they are also reported to want the firm to pay financial compensation to victims of fighting and airstrikes in Fallujah.

Sheikh al-Dulaymi denies having any direct contact with the kidnappers themselves.

/// 2nd AL-DULAYMI ACT-IN ARABIC, ESTAB AND FADE ///

He says my contact with the kidnappers is through the channels, not personally. He says, I appeal to them to help those people, and they send their messages through these channels. I have no direct contact with them.

Sheikh al-Dulaymi heads two organizations, a grouping of Iraqi tribes and one called the Association of Victims of the American Occupation. On the wall of the reception room is a white cloth banner painted with an image from one of the infamous photographs of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison.

He feels those two positions give him credibility as a mediator. But he says he disagrees with the kidnapping tactic.

/// 3rd AL-DULAYMI ARABIC ACT, ESTABLISH AND FADE ///

He says he thinks this is a bad thing and he has denounced it many times. He says he is mediating the crisis because he wants to secure the release of innocent people because, in his words, I consider this a humanitarian issue.

The kidnappings have sparked angry demonstrations in India and Kenya, neither of which has troops in Iraq. The Indian government has dispatched a senior Arabic-speaking diplomat to Baghdad to help negotiate for the release of the three Indian victims. (SIGNED)

NEB/CEM/LDJ/PT