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Ex-hostage says Iraqi abductors treated her OK
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-27 09:10
A German woman freed after being held hostage in Iraq for more than three
weeks said in an interview broadcast Monday that she was treated well by her
kidnappers.
Susanne Osthoff, an aid worker and archaeologist, told the Arabic-language
Al-Jazeera satellite channel that her abductors weren't trying to get a ransom.
Rather, they were demanding that schools, hospitals and other humanitarian
projects built in Sunni Arab areas, she said.
"Thank God, I am still alive," Osthoff, 43, said in Arabic, a black scarf
wrapped around her head.
A Feb. 2004 file photo shows German
archeologist Susanne Osthoff made available Nov. 30 2005.
[AP/file] | Osthoff, the first German to be
kidnapped in Iraq, disappeared with her Iraqi driver in northern Iraq on Nov.
25. Her release was announced Dec. 18. The driver is also believed to have been
let go.
The German government expressed concern Monday that Osthoff has not ruled out
going back to Iraq and appealed to her not to return.
"After the intensive efforts of many who were involved, which in the end led
to her release, I would find it hard to understand if Mrs. Osthoff again put
herself in a dangerous situation," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter
Steinmeier said in a statement.
Osthoff said in the interview she was always aware of the danger in Iraq and
knew she might be killed by a bombing any time she went out. But she said Iraqis
are living in misery and need help. The aid money that enters the country does
not reach ordinary Iraqis, she argued.
In most of the interview, Osthoff spoke in English, with an Arabic
translation voiceover.
According to the translation, she said she tried to resist her kidnappers
when they forced her inside a car's trunk. She said she could see a police
patrol under a nearby bridge. It wasn't clear if the officers saw her.
Osthoff said the drive to the place where she was held took a long time. Once
there, her kidnappers called her by name and told her they knew she was a friend
of Iraq, she said.
She described her captivity as comfortable, although there was no power and
no stores nearby. She said she drank tea and smoked a lot.
At some point during her captivity, she heard explosions nearby and felt no
one could enter the area where she was held.
Osthoff said her captors told her they were trying to contact German
authorities. She said she finally was driven to Baghdad and freed, but details
of how her release was secured were not clear from the translation.
Relatives in Germany have said Osthoff, a fluent Arabic speaker who was once
married to a Jordanian national, has been out of touch with them for
years.
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