Posted on 06/16/2004 8:47:13 PM PDT by Destro
Kidnappers find a profitable way to drive out educated families
Jonathan Steele in Baghdad
Thursday June 17, 2004
The Guardian
Ali Hassan stands outside his front gate with his 10-year-old son, recalling the moment last week when the boy was seized there by kidnappers. Hamid had been shopping with his mother and when they got home he stayed outside to play with friends. Within minutes she heard shouts and a car racing off.
Hamid's stunned playmates told her that a red Japanese car had driven up, a man had got out and asked for directions, and suddenly bundled the boy inside.
It was the eighth kidnapping in three months in Ghazalia, a Baghdad suburb of about 500 houses, according to residents.
The motives vary. Some are purely criminal, some political, others both, but the unprecedented wave of kidnapping in every big Iraqi city is forcing hundreds of professional families to think of emigrating.
Those who want to make Iraq ungovernable chalk up a victory every time a doctor, an engineer, or a university professor leaves the country.
Hamid's ordeal ended relatively quickly, but expensively.
Ali Hassan received a phone call from the kidnappers a few hours after they had snatched Hamid. He spoke briefly to his son, who said he was being treated well. On the next call, in which the gang for the first time mentioned a ransom, the boy was in tears, pleading for his father to hurry up and help him.
Negotiations followed, and thanks to his membership of one of Iraq's biggest Sunni tribes, Ali Hassan was able to raise the sum from brothers, cousins and other relatives. He declines to name it, but other sources say ransoms are never less than $10,000 and can go up to $500,000 (£275,000).
Two weeks earlier a boy of 17 was picked up in the same district. He has an older brother and sister employed as translators by western companies. This time the kidnappers added a warning that the boy's siblings must quit their jobs.
Adult kidnappings are also becoming more frequent, and more common than the seizures of foreigners which gain international headlines.
Professor Nihad al Rawi, head of administration at Baghdad University, said: "Five professors from various Iraqi universities have been taken in the last three months. We have no idea who's doing this. It's never happened before. We have no experience of this kind of thing.
"I'm starting to worry about my son and daughter. I take them to college in the morning but they usually come home on their own. Where could I get $10,000, and that's the minimum?"
Dr Bakhtiar Amin, the minister of human rights, reported last week that 23 doctors were being held hostage.
The kidnappings and assassinations are hitting minorities particularly hard.
"We are suffering from two and three kidnappings a week," said Father Bashar Warda, who teaches at the Chaldean Christians' Babel College for Philosophy and Theology.
The Chaldeans, he said, form about 3% of the population but a much larger proportion of those with higher education, including hundreds of engineers and doctors.
"Between five and 10 Chaldean families are leaving Iraq every day. Others are sending their wives and children away first, and will follow later if the security situation does not improve," he said.
"Mainly they go to Syria, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. Others are trying to get to Australia and Canada."
He added: "The occupation forces employ 100 Christians and 30 have been killed."
The authorities confirm that kidnapping has reached a record level in the past few months. The occupation forces pay little attention, concentrating on attacks against themselves and leaving the fight against crime to Iraq's still-depleted police force.
Major General Jamal Adi al Ma'adhidi, the Baghdad police chief, says there are about 20 kidnappings a month in the capital.
He admits the real figure is higher. People do not always tell the police, either because they think it is pointless, or because they fear it may add to the danger facing those kidnapped, or because they suspect that the police sometimes work with the gangs.
"Many people don't trust the police. There are indeed some very bad policemen. I hope we can gradually clean up our system," he said.
As he spoke he took a call on his mobile phone. When it was over, he said: "That was a friend whose wife's sister has just been kidnapped.
"He asked for help but said he didn't want a lot of policemen, perhaps just one man with experience. I told him I've got just the right person who can work undercover. I gave him my promise not as a policeman, but as a friend."
· The names and ages of victims have been changed.
The irony is that Syria (and Iran of all places) will be the last hold out where Christians in the region can feel safe.
Not the case for Christians in Israel/Palestine (hammered by both sides), Iraq or Egypt - even more ironic since these are countries America has influence over.
Not to put too fine a line on it, but Christians were not targetted under Saddam
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