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| Thursday, 28 October 2004 |
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Hostage faces execution but Japan won't pull troops from Iraq BAGHDAD, Wednesday (AFP) Japan insisted Wednesday it would not bow to the demands of Islamic militants in Iraq who threatened to behead a young Japanese drifter unless Tokyo pulled its troops from the country within 48 hours. "The Self-Defence Forces will not withdraw," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, a staunch US ally, said as he went ahead with a tour of typhoon damage in western Japan. "We must not bow to terrorism." The al-Qaeda-linked group of Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi in a video released late Tuesday on the Internet showed a shaggy-haired Japanese-speaking man in a white T-shirt at the feet of three armed and masked men. "We are giving the Japanese government 48 hours in which to withdraw its troops from Iraq, otherwise this infidel will join the others (executed)," a militant said in the video. Among the "others", the militant mentioned the American Nicholas Berg and Briton Kenneth Bigley, who were both executed by the Zarqawi group. The Japanese man, whose head was at one point held up by a kidnapper, said on the video: "Mr Koizumi, they demand the Japanese government withdraw the Japanese Self-Defence Forces from Iraq or they will chop off my head." "I'm sorry, but I want to come back to Japan," he said in Japanese. Japan identified the hostage as Shosei Koda, a 24-year-old from southern Fukuoka province who "has been wandering around many countries," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda, the government spokesman. Public broadcaster NHK, quoting Koda's father, said the young man left Japan for New Zealand early this year and his whereabouts had since been unknown. The network said Japan informed Koda's family three days ago that it had learned the man entered Iraq and relatives tried unsuccessfully to contact him. "Mr Koda has nothing to do with the Self-Defence Forces," Hosoda said. "He is a private citizen. We demand his immediate release." It was the second hostage crisis faced by Koizumi, a close supporter of US President George W. Bush, since his historic decision to deploy troops to Iraq over widespread domestic opposition. In April, militants kidnapped three Japanese aid workers and two journalists in Iraq but they were released unharmed after days of mediation. |
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