Iraqis Live in Fear of Kidnappings for Ransom

[Barrett808]

Iraqis Live in Fear of Kidnappings for Ransom
Mon Aug 2, 9:01 AM ET
By Lin Noueihed

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Bassam had barely stepped outside the gate of his Baghdad school when a man grabbed him, covered his eyes and bundled him into a getaway car.

The 10-year-old was to spend the next month locked in a house by strangers who fed him only tomatoes and potatoes while kidnappers haggled with his father over a ransom for his release.

"After 10 days they called my uncle's house and said we have Bassam and want $150,000 to return him. Don't tell the police," said his father Walid, sitting in the dingy living room of their home in Baghdad's sprawling Sadr City slum.

"After 20 days they brought it down to $100,000. But I didn't have that kind of money. I am a cameraman and so is my brother. So the calls went on, threatening to kill him."

(more)

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040802/lf_nm/iraq_kidnappings_dc_1

[Barrett808]

1. Riverbend is back, and corroborates this

...Security-wise, the situation is both better and worse all at once. The streets feel a little bit safer because you can see policemen standing around in the more crowded areas and even in some residential areas. There aren’t nearly enough to keep things secure, but just seeing someone standing there is a little bit comforting. At the same time, kidnappings have multiplied. It’s an epidemic now. Everyone seems to know someone who was abducted. Some are abducted for ransom while others are abducted for religious or political reasons. The abduction of foreigners is on the increase. People coming and going from Syria and Jordan tell stories of how their convoy or bus or private car was stopped in the middle of the road by men with covered faces and how passports and documents are checked. Should anything suspicious surface (like a British or American passport), the whole thing immediately turns from a ‘check’ or ‘tafteesh’ to an abduction.

I get emails by the dozen from people crying out against the abduction of foreigners. Endlessly I read the lines, “But these people are there to help you- they are aide workers…” or “But the press is there for a good cause…”, etc. What people abroad don’t seem to realize is the fact that everything is mixed up right now. Seeing a foreigner, there’s often no way to tell who is who. The blonde guy in the sunglasses and beige vest walking down the street could be a reporter or someone who works with a humanitarian group- but he could just as likely be ‘security’ from one of those private mercenary companies we’re hearing so much about.

Is there sympathy with all these abductees? There is. We hate seeing them looking frightened on television. We hate thinking of the fact that they have families and friends who worry about them in distant countries and wonder how in the world they managed to end up in the hell that is now Iraq… but for every foreigner abducted, there are probably 10 Iraqis being abducted and while we have to be here because it is home, truck drivers, security personnel for foreign companies and contractors do not. Sympathy has its limits in the Iraqi summer heat. Dozens of Iraqis are dying on a daily basis in places like Falloojeh and Najaf and everyone is mysteriously silent- one Brit, American or Pakistani dies and the world is in an uproar- it is getting tiresome.

(more)

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/2004_07_01_riverbendblog_archive.html#109129570475770507

[stickdog]

2. Hooray! We freed the kidnappers! (nt)