http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Hostages-survival-in-hands-of-sheiks/2005/05/03/1115092503554.htmlHassan Zadaan quietly considers the plight of Douglas Wood, the Australian taken hostage in Iraq, then says: “If this man has been kidnapped by the insurgency, I promise to get him released.”
An Australian hostage taskforce arrived in Baghdad yesterday, but Mr Wood’s fate may well be determined by the involvement of men like Mr Zadaan, a controversial Sunni tribal sheik and a former general in Saddam Hussein’s army.
The group claiming responsibility for the kidnapping – the Shura Council of the Mujahideen of Iraq – has said nothing since Sunday’s release of the video in which Mr Wood pleads for his life and the withdrawal of Australian, US and British troops.
Mr Wood, 63, who lives in California and is believed to have trained as a nuclear engineer, had been running his construction firm in Iraq for 18 months.
The Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, said yesterday the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, had committed UN staff and resources in Baghdad to the rescue effort.
But the Defence Minister, Robert Hill, acknowledged the role of men like Mr Zadaan, when he said Sunni and tribal leaders were vital. “The best chance for a successful outcome is the utilisation of those people. It’s been either tribal or religious leaders that have played a key role in facilitating recovery in a number of successful cases,” he said.
Mr Zadaan, who is credited with negotiating the release of hostages from Germany, France and Egypt in the past year, operates outside official circles. He usually acts on appeals from hostages’ families or activist groups, rather than from governments in the ranks of the coalition.
In an interview at his compound in Baghdad, he set limits on what he could do: “I respect the resistance, but I can’t deal with criminals who just want money – that’s bad for my reputation.”
Mr Zadaan was named as a Sunni contender for deputy prime minister in the new government, but as one of Saddam’s generals he was sidelined after a vitriolic Shiite campaign that included this memorable quote from the high-profile Shiite Ahmed Chalabi: “Bring back Uday and Qusay [Saddam’s sons], but never Zadaan.”
However, as a sheikh of the Al-Lehabi tribe and a towering figure in Saddam’s military, Mr Zadaan has a vast network of tribal contacts, particularly among Sunnis who back the insurgency, and of former military men, who are often assumed to be the organisational backbone of the armed opposition. Also, his National Iraqi Dialogue Committee claims to have 264 offices across the country.
Mr Zadaan revealed he had been asked by an activist group in France to help rescue French journalist Florence Aubenas, who disappeared in Baghdad on January 5. And, in response to a request from the Herald, he despatched two of his aides to work the phones for Mr Wood.
The Wood video and an accompanying statement which states Mr Wood confessed to “dirty acts on our soil”, did not set a deadline for a response by any of the three governments it addresses.
Any negotiation process will become a moral nightmare for the Howard Government. Fairly or otherwise, the Prime Minister’s insistence that Australia would neither withdraw from Iraq nor “allow terrorists to dictate its foreign policy”, will be read in some quarters as a death sentence for Mr Wood.
Senator Hill was pessimistic about the chances of survival. Asked yesterday if he was confident Mr Wood would make it out alive, he said: “No, I haven’t got confidence of that. You can’t look at the history of hostage-taking over the last few years in Iraq and have confidence in that outcome.
“I certainly hope he is saved and the Federal Government will do all that we can to achieve that objective.”
By a willingness to negotiate, Australia can buy time for the likes of Mr Zadaan and the sheiks of the Public National Unity organisation, which has also promised to help, to establish contact and apply moral and religious pressure on his captors.
Mr Wood’s chances seem are grim and Sunday’s video revealed his obvious stress, but a dispassionate analyses of his circumstances suggests that he may be better placed than others who have been in the same predicament.
Bald statistics on the fate of hostages are on his side – for every one executed since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, about three have been released or recovered, or have escaped.
Better still for Mr Wood are his personal circumstances. The language he uses in the video, particularly his non-specific admission to doing “many jobs for the US military”. does not present him in his best light.
Unlike other hostages, he is not an active military man hamstrung by his government’s refusal to withdraw troops. And because he runs his own business he is not doomed by the corporate or political commitment of the likes of Bechtel or Halliburton to remain in Iraq. The upshot is that Mr Wood is in a positionto trade his business for his life.
It may be his best – possibly his only – option. If he is released, he is unlikely to want to remain in Iraq so the future of his endeavours here are moot.
His construction business could be sold to his captors by tribal or religious intermediaries as the best propaganda outcome they are likely to achieve.
This is murky moral territory, but the willingness of kidnap groups to settle on such terms has saved lives.
Several Jordanian and Turkish service and construction groups agreed to end their business in Iraq in exchange for the release of kidnapped workers. They include the Bilintur transport company, whose translator Aytullah Gezmen was freed last year after 52 days as a captive of the similarly named Shura Council of the Mujahideen.
None of this is to understate Mr Wood’s plight.
No information has been released – by the authorities or by his captors – on the circumstances of his abduction. Last year he told a newspaper he was working on two projects – one in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone and one in war-ravaged Falluja, west of Baghdad.
It is not known if he had been awarded more work since then, but one of the strongest insurgency strongholds lies between the Green Zone and Falluja. However, it is territory in which tribal and religious leaders have greater ease of movement and may be better received than Iraqi Government officials.
There is always a risk that larger-than-life characters such as Mr Zadaan are more myth than reality and the petty jealousies between tribal sheiks were apparent in the Herald‘s meetings with Mr Zadaan and the sheiks of Public National Unity.
But for now they may be the best thing Douglas Wood has going for him.
Related:
The Sydney Morning Herald – Letters To The Editor Wed May 4 2005
How Wood’s captivity captures the big picture
http://www.smh.com.au/letters/index.htmlWhile the deliberate killing of any human being, under any circumstances, is to be deplored and those responsible for it should be brought to justice, I cannot bring myself to champion the cause of those who place themselves in a position whereby they may face retribution by the citizens of an invaded nation (“Please help me – I don’t want to die”, Herald, May 3).
Almost all of the hostages held by Iraqi nationals that we have seen on our television screens have pleaded: “I don’t want to die.” How many innocent Iraqi civilians might have uttered those very same words?
The US military and its coalition of the willing went to Iraq to kill Iraqis. Those who subsequently went to Iraq to assist those invaders in any way must be considered “fair game” and, although we should do all within our power to obtain the release of any hostage, we should be mindful of the nature of the business of war.
Adam Lyons Springwood.
While everyone must hope Douglas Wood is delivered safely from harm’s way, our response to his plight is surely evidence of our nation’s shameful hypocrisy.
Where is our wringing of hands over the estimated 100,000 civilians killed by the coalition of the willing in their illegal war of aggression against Iraq? Where is our outrage over the 17,000 detainees held by the US around the world, subject to illegal rendition, torture, and denied their human rights?
Where is our outrage over systematic destruction of another country, premised on our leaders’ lies and deceit, just so we can loot their natural resources? Where is our outrage over our Government’s complicity in this criminal enterprise, which surely must be the only reason Mr Wood was taken hostage?
We can only hope Mr Wood’s captors possess more compassion than we do.
John Richardson St Ives
It’s a classic. Lord Downer of Baghdad asks the United Nations for help to secure the release of an Aussie hostage after choosing to ignore the UN’s attempts to avoid the war in the first place.
Simon Dodshon Fairlight
It’s a bit rich, the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, requesting assistance from the UN in securing the release of Douglas Wood. After Downer, Howard et al, ignored the UN in their haste to join the US invasion of Iraq and have been dismissive of the UN’s multilateral approach, saying the whole organisation is in need of reform, I’m sure the UN will be bounding in to help such a supportive member state.
Jim Carey Dubbo
Again I am shocked at the brutal act of the insurgents. They should respect the sayings of the Koran – killing one soul is like killing all humanity. As the Muslims live with dignity in the Western world, Westerners, such as Douglas Wood, deserve to live freely in the Islamic world.
Nahid Kabir Churchlands (WA)
I wonder if Mr Howard would be willing to treat the captors of Mr Wood in Iraq in the same manner he does the Australian public. Tell them he will remove the troops, thus securing Mr Wood’s release, perhaps, then do a backflip or say he was misinformed, if informed at all, like some of his other recent promises.
L. Weston Parramatta
Mr Wood needs all the help he can get. With about 400,000 Muslims in Australia, why doesn’t the Australian Islamic community send a message via Al Jazeera to plead for Mr Wood’s release?
Michael Burd Toorak (Vic)
“We can’t have the foreign policy dictated by terrorists,” said the PM. Of course not, Prime Minister. Our foreign policy is dictated by an administration that has been dispensing terrorism on a much larger scale than any terrorist has done anywhere.
Henk Verhoeven Beacon Hill