Foreign Charity Workers Look At Leaving Iraq As Hostage Crisis Escalates

BAGHDAD, Sept 8 (AFP) - Frightened foreign charity workers looked at leaving Iraq on Wednesday after kidnappers seized female aid staff in their office in broad daylight, marking a dangerous evolution in an escalating hostage crisis.
Italians Simona Torretta and Simona Pari, and Iraq`s Mihnaz Murad, all working for Un Ponte Per Baghdad (A Bridge for Baghdad) were bundled out of their office in a quiet Baghdad neighbourhood on Tuesday afternoon at gunpoint.
Their colleague, an Iraqi man working for fellow Italian aid agency Intersos, was also snatched by the group, which has yet to claim responsibility for the kidnapping.
The Italian government, criticised for failing to do enough to secure the release of an Italian journalist who was shot by his Islamic militant kidnappers less than two weeks ago, quickly mobilised its resources.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi presided over an emergency cabinet meeting and pledged to seek a united national response to the hostage-taking.
"The government is convinced of the need for a united national response in the face of terrorism," Berlusconi`s office said after the crisis meeting.
Torretta and Pari are the first foreign female hostages to be taken since a Japanese reporter was snatched when the kidnapping crisis erupted in April. She was later released.
The Italians were also the first foreigners to have been taken from their offices. The common tactic upto now has been to ambush foreigners driving on Iraq`s dangerous roads, as happened with French journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, who went missing on August 20 en route to the city of Najaf.
The new tactic and its implicit threat spread alarm among other foreign workers with non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
"Following the discussions I had this morning, it seems that most foreign NGOs are preparing to leave, and some expatriates already left this morning," said aid group coordinator Jean-Dominique Bunel.
"The others should do the same thing in days to come. All flight are booked until Friday," he said.
Warning that the latest kidnapping marked a "dangerous escalation" in Iraq`s hostage crisis, the interior ministry also predicted serious consequences.
"This hostage-taking will have consequences in Iraq, not only on the security level but also politically and economically," Sabah Kadhim added.
During a news conference on Wednesday, Baghdad`s aid and relief community expressed amazement at the kidnapping of volunteers who want only to improve the plight of Iraqis in a country devastated by war and sanctions.
"We are shocked. We call for their release because these people are working to help Iraqi society ... They are messengers of peace," said Ismail Dawd, from the national association for the defence of human rights.
"This kidnapping is justified neither by national sentiment nor sharia (Islamic) law. It is a sin that can never be righted," said Sheikh Hikmet Nasser Hattab, introduced as a representative of a humanitarian organisation.
"If you claim to be nationalists, I appeal to your `Iraqiness` and if you claim to be religious, I appeal to your faith, to free these people," he said.
"I had nightmares all night and I am starting to get seriously worried," said Anne-Sophie Le Mauf, a French freelance journalist who lives in the upmarket Karada district of Baghdad.
"When I go out, from now on, I`m going to vary my itinerary and schedule. I`m going to ask the driver to make detours and I`m no longer going to ask anyone to collect me from the house.
"I`m also going to use codes with visitors and I will not open the door to anyone I don`t know," she said.