Christian group blames US, Britain for Iraq kidnappings

BAGHDAD,Wednesday (AFP) A Christian pacifist group named Tuesday the four activists who were kidnapped in Iraq while blaming "illegal acts" by the United States and Britain for their abduction. Meanwhile Canada's prime minister said there was "no more urgent priority" for his government than the safe return of two Canadians in the group.

The US and Canada-based Christian Peacemaker Teams said in a statement that American Tom Fox, 54; Briton Norman Kember, 74; and two Canadians, James Loney, 41 and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, were kidnapped in Baghdad Saturday.

The four hostages were seen Tuesday on Qatar-based Al Jazeera television in a video made by a previously unknown group which called the hostages "spies" while showing Kember's passport. The four were activists for "non-violent peacemaking" and human rights in Iraq, according to Christian Peacemaker, an umbrella group for pacifist church activism.

In a statement, the group blamed the occupation of Iraq by US and British forces for the kidnappings.

"We are angry because what has happened to our teammates is the result of the actions of the US and UK governments due to the illegal attack on Iraq, and the continuing occupation and oppression of its people," the group said.

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin meanwhile said Tuesday that his government was doing all possible to free the Canadians in the group.

"I can assure Canadians than there is no more urgent priority than the safe return of our citizens," Martin said.

"These are people who are in the country for humanitarian purposes, who went there to help the citizens of Iraq," he said.

According to the Christian Peacemaker website, the group recruits volunteers from sponsor churches, including the Mennonite churches of Canada and the United States and the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, to travel to war zones and crisis centers to promote non-violence.

The four abducted activists were part of a team in Iraq since 2002 to produce independent human rights reports and train others in non-violent intervention and human rights documentation, the group said in a statement.

"We were the first people to publicly denounce the torture of Iraqi people at the hands of US forces, long before the Western media admitted what was happening at Abu Ghraib," the group said.