Iraq's postwar kidnapping crime wave

[BrianOKeeffe]

Iraq's postwar kidnapping crime wave

By Odai Sirri in Baghdad

Tuesday 13 April 2004, 8:31 Makka Time, 5:31 GMT

Although world attention has focused on the fate of dozens of foreigners kidnapped in Iraq over the past week, the story of hundreds of other victims has received scant publicity.



Living with her family in the Kathum district of Baghdad, Aisha, a 21-year-old university student in her third year, used to view the future with healthy optimism.

But that changed one hot summer night when two men stormed into her bedroom and seized her while the rest of her family were asleep.

The intense heat had driven her parents to sleep on the flat roof – a seasonal habit for many Iraqis. And so they failed to hear Aisha's cries for help before the two men overpowered her, taped her mouth shut and blindfolded her.

Although several months have passed since her ordeal, Aisha's face still pales as she recounts the story.

The kidnappers drove her to another location and put her in a room with two other women around the same age as her.

Outside the room where Aisha was held stood a female guard, who brought the women food and water. The guard insisted nothing worse would happen to them – provided their families paid the ransom.

Two days after her abduction, Aisha's family received their first ransom demand. The kidnappers called to say they wanted $20,000 by the following day, or Aisha would be killed.

Security void

Aisha may have been targeted because her father was a senior figure in one of Saddam Hussein's brutal security agencies and, consequently, he made a lot of enemies during his tenure.

Postwar Iraq is a country where revenge attacks and the settling of scores have become the norm.

The lack of law and order tops
women's concerns in Iraq

But postwar Iraq also suffers from a huge lack of security. Cars are stolen at gunpoint on a daily basis, symbolising a surge in random crime. But it is the quasi-organised variety that frightens many.

Kidnappings have skyrocketed – though accurate statistics do not exist because few incidents are reported to the police, who are widely viewed with mistrust and regarded as ineffective.

"It's a growing trend, a new business in Iraq," says the deputy police chief for Baghdad, Raad Yasir.

Women are most at risk. According to the Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq, the abduction and rape of women has become an almost daily occurence; during a four month period last year, the rights group reported 400 such kidnappings.

Yasir says stories of hundreds of kidnappings each month are exaggerated. But he admits the two or three incidents reported to his colleagues each week reveals only part of the true picture.

"Many people try to resolve matters themselves, or pay up the money," Yasir told Aljazeera.net.

Exchange

In Aisha's case, the kidnappers told her parents the exchange would take place on a quiet road on the outskirts of their municipality.

Her father agreed – but then, ignored the kidnappers' instructions completely.

Enraged, the kidnappers called back the following day and warned Aisha's mother they would kill her daughter unless the ransom was delivered the next day. A different location was arranged – a Shia mosque in another municipality.

That day, the kidnappers had Aisha dressed head to toe in black - the traditional Shia dress – and took her to a large mosque, which had seven entry gates.

The kidnappers forced her to stand by one gate and look as if she were collecting donations.

To this day, she says, "I’ll never be able to explain my luck."

Escape and revenge

While she stood by the gate, a huge group of Iranian Shia women began walking into the mosque. Aisha seized the opportunity to run for her life.

Camouflaged by the sea of black around her, Aisha ran past several other gates until she saw a motorist parked by the side of the road.

Aisha was able to hide among a
large group of Shia Muslims

"He thought I was crazy," she says, "hitting the bonnet of his car, crying and screaming at the same time; I pleaded with the man to help me and take me home."

Thirty minutes later she was home. Both parents were also there, since the father had again refused to comply with the kidnappers' demands.

However, the kidnappers may have exacted their revenge on her father. A week after the failed ransom bid, his brother was shot dead outside his home.

Aisha's family have since moved to an undisclosed location in Baghdad. Nevertheless, she hardly leaves her home as she continues to live in terror of being kidnapped again.

But Aisha is lucky: not many people escape kidnappings and live to tell the tale.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exer...57E6456A43.htm

[BrianOKeeffe]

It would appear that not all the people that Saddam had within his jails and prisons (which were emptied just prior to the start of the war), not all were political prisoners.

[Hoss68]

That young woman was very lucky indeed...

Agencies Work Together to Find Hostages in Iraq
By Sgt. 1st Class Doug Sample, USA
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 13, 2004 -- Coalition officials said today the whereabouts of as many as 40 hostages in Iraq from 12 countries are unknown.

Some countries are urging their citizens not to go to Iraq or to leave the country, after several aid workers, contractors and coalition soldiers have gone missing.

Senior coalition spokesman Dan Senor confirmed at a Baghdad news conference that the FBI is working with coalition and Iraqi security forces to seek out the "hostages and their takers," and that a number of other law enforcement agencies from the international community are involved with the investigation. He said the coalition will not negotiate with terrorists and kidnappers. "It is in everybody's interest that the hostages are released as expeditiously as possible," he added.

Meanwhile, Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told reporters that every country has to make a determination regarding security when it comes to ongoing operations in Iraq. Kimmitt is deputy operations director for Combined Joint Task Force 7.

"We still have some tough fighting ahead of us," he said. "We will continue to work closely with our Iraqi security forces to bring safety and security to this country. But that has got to be a sovereign decision of the nation and an individual decision made by each person. We can't declare at this point that it is as safe as we want it to be, but can declare that we will continue to work to reduce the amount of violence in this country."

Kimmitt said more progress needs to be made to be made with regard to the Iraqi army, police and security forces, many of whom reportedly fled or refused to participate during recent fighting against insurgents. But he added that many Iraqi security forces have performed admirably. "Before we suggest that all the forces just walked away from the fight, in fact there had been numerous forces that, when mustered, went to where they needed to be and performed brilliantly," he said.

Kimmitt said that Iraqi police in many towns have come back to man their stations.

"In truth, there were a number of troops, there were a number of police, that didn't stand up when their country called," he said. "We are going to take a hard look at where we are on the development of the Iraqi security forces, and we're going to redouble our efforts so that our eventual goal, which is an Iraqi security apparatus capable of defending itself and public security, is met," he said.

He said it will take time to train and equip the Iraqi security forces to meet that goal, and that's why coalition forces will continue to work alongside Iraqi security forces after the new Iraqi government assumes sovereignty June 30.