Former hostage in Iraq shares his story

The BBC today has aired an interview with Richard Butler, a journalist kidnapped in Iraq two months ago and released on 14 April. Butler describes in detail the abduction itself, his anxiety over the fate of the translator kidnapped with him (who was released unharmed) and the day that he was discovered by the Iraqi army. Click here to watch the interview or read excerpts.

Quelling kidnapping in Nigeria

 

Nigeria has suffered a spate of kidnapping incidents in recent months, carried out by militants in the lawless Niger Delta region as part of an ongoing political battle with foreign-run oil companies. But it is the kidnapping of children which is particularly worrisome – last year in the abduction of three-year-old Margaret Hill garnered international attention, though abduction of Nigerian children for ransom is also common in the region, as this case demonstrates.

It is a positive development therefore that the police have devised a strategy, in collaboration with federal and state officials, to try and combat this crime wave. Interestingly, the police approach the issue of combating hostage-taking as one of economic necessity, as this interview by the Assistance Inspector of Police in the region confirms.

Iraq hostages…in Iran?

 

News surfaced today that three Britons kidnapped in Iraq in May 2007 may have been handed over to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards late last year. The sources who have made these claims also allege the hostages are physically located in Hamadan, Iran, though British officials do not believe this to be the case. If proven true, however, this may be the first episode of transnational kidnapping between Iraq and Iran in a long time and would necessitate new strategies to free the men.

Kidnapping and child soldiers

 

Several international human rights groups issued statements in the past week about the ongoing campaign of kidnappings in Central Africa. Amnesty International highlights in this brief how more than 350 men, women and children have been abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army in recent weeks. Amnesty is especially concerned about the plight of the women and children, who often are forced to become sex slaves or child combatants.

 

Meanwhile, I found this background paper from Human Rights Watch on what actually happens to those children who are abducted from their homes and forced to become child soldiers. The paper describes the experiences of child soldiers in seven countries and illustrates how these children are coerced into becoming perpetrators of human rights violations, thus fuelling an ongoing pattern of violence.

How to deal with hostage situations

 

Governments take varying stances on how to deal with kidnappings, from declaring all-out war against the militant/insurgent groups who take hostages to engaging in political negotiations with them. An article by Mary Kaldor at Open Democracy examines these tactics, and ultimately concludes that a third strategy is needed, one based on law enforcement. Kaldor argues that the appropriate approach should be to rely upon local police/security forces to search for and arrest hostage-takers, while building local level cooperation to see that neighbourhoods reject kidnapping.

News from Pakistan & Afghanistan

Two Pakistani employees of the World Food Programme, taken hostage days ago in the lawless tribal areas of the Khyber Pass on the border with Afghanistan, were freed following clashes between security forces and their hostage-takers.

 

 

In related news, it appears that militants who kidnapped Pakistan’s Ambassador to Afghanistan have softened their demands. The Ambassador, Tariq Azizuddin, who was seized on 11 February in the same area as the UN workers, appeared in a video over the weekend, in which he claimed he was being held by Taliban. And in breaking news this evening, it appears that two workers (one Indian, one Nepalese) were kidnapped by Taliban militants in the western area of Herat, Afghanistan this afternoon. 

 

More kidnappings in Iraq

Several Diyala university students and their driver were kidnapped in Iraq today near Baquba, just a few weeks after 40 other students were taken hostage near Mosul. The incident reiterates how an upsurge in violence is taking its toll on civilians.

In other Iraq news, ex-hostage Richard Butler made a public statement yesterday, thanking his rescuers but also reminding the world: “I would appeal to all hostage takers to release their hostages regardless of nationality and return them to their families.”

 

Betancourt kidnapper apologises

 

The FARC guerrilla responsible for kidnapping Ingrid Betancourt has apologised this week, sending a letter to her family and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Nolberto Uni Vega, who left FARC in 2003 and is currently in prison in Colombia, claims that Betancourt’s kidnapping happened by mere chance when during her presidential campaign she inadvertently came upon a FARC checkpoint.

 

It is unclear what the purpose of the apology is – whether the statement is some sort of a plea bargain for leniency for his current sentence or whether Uni feels genuine remorse for his activities. The apology coincides with an article in The Economist this week about why Colombian President Uribe is, in the words of the author, “winning an anti-terrorist war”. Uribe is credited with making progress in lowering the levels of extreme violence in the country, including the number of kidnappings, as this chart indicates.

 

 

 

Hostage TV on National Geographic

Just caught a glimpse last night of an interesting programme done by the National Geographic Channel called Reign of Terror: Hostage TV. The programme examines how 21st century kidnappers have utilised video broadcasts and the internet to spread their messages – and interestingly, to provide visual proof of their activities to the funders of terrorism. Two stories are examined in depth – the Moscow theatre siege by Chechen terrorists and the abduction of two French journalists in Iraq. A quick search of National Geographic’s programming schedule indicates that this show pops up in regular rotation around the globe, so keep an eye out for it. 

LRA: more accusations of kidnapping

The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel militia that has been engaged in a war with the government of Uganda for almost two decades, has been accused of kidnapping 55 children in southern Sudan in recent weeks as part of an ongoing effort to forcibly recruit child soldiers.

The chief mediator in Ugandan peace talks with the LRA also claims that children are not the only victims of recent abductions – the LRA allegedly has kidnapped villagers from Sudan, Congo and the Central African Republic in an effort to swell their ranks. Many of these are women and girls who are gang-raped by the rebels.

These recent attacks signal that a peace deal brokered between the LRA and Ugandan government has been derailed.

 

For an arresting account of a young woman who was kidnapped and buried alive by the LRA, but survived and testified before the U.S. Congress, click here.