Two Canadian Peace Activists Kidnapped in Iraq

After a welcomed break in the kidnapping of foreigners in Iraq, four peace activists, including two Canadians, were kidnapped in a dangerous Baghdad neighbourhood on Saturday. The four men were all members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), a humanitarian organization opposed to the U.S. presence in Iraq. It is one of the few organizations that still has remained in the country after most other organizations withdrew in May.

While the Canadian branch of the organization was still withholding the names of its abducted members, the American branch confirmed that the four men were community worker James Loney, 41, of Toronto, Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, a Canadian electrical engineer, and Tom Fox, 54, a grocer from Clearbrook, Virginia. The fourth man whose identity was already known is 74-year-old retired professor Norman Kember of Britain.

A U.S. newspaper has reported that Loney was leading the Christian group's delegation in Iraq.

The four hostages were shown on an al-Jazeera broadcast on Tuesday, apparently unharmed. The footage was taken by a group calling itself the Sword of Righteousness Brigade which claimed the Peacemakers were undercover spies.

CPT says that one of its functions in Iraq has been to document human rights abuses linked to the U.S.-led invasion. The group has been in Iraq since 2002, six months before the invasion began.

"We've done reporting on detainees, we've done reporting of families of detainees and reports of abuse of detainees, and we've done reports from people on the ground, as we were one of the few organizations there that had that had access to people on the ground in Baghdad and other places in Iraq," said a Canadian spokesperson for the group.

Dan McTeague, parliamentary secretary for Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew in charge of Canadians abroad, told 24 Hours news service that the Canadian government's efforts to free the kidnapped Canadians have been hindered by the fact that Canada has no embassy in Iraq. Canadians officials are thus working through the embassy in Amman, Jordan.

Prime Minister Paul Martin said Tuesday that Canada would do everything possible to secure the release of the Canadians. "I can assure Canadians that there is no more urgent priority than the safe return of our citizens," Martin told reporters.

"I have instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Clerk of the Privy Council to make certain that the full resources of the government of Canada are made available to this end," he said.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hohshyar Zebari has told British Foreign secretary Jack Stray that the Iraqi government will provide every assistance to help free the kidnapped activists.

Ironically, while the governments Canada as well as of the United States and Britain--two leaders of the coalition's occupation of Iraq--work towards securing the safety of the CPT members, a group of influencial Sunni Cleriks believed to have ties with the terrorist insurgency are also calling for their release.

A group of Sunni clerics called the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq and Palestine, which is believed to be tied to the insurgency, called for the released of the kidnapped CPT members Wednesday, pointing out that the CPT is against the coalition force's occupation of Iraq.

On Friday, German archaeologists Susanne Osthoff was kidnapped with her Iraqi driver. German television showed a picture of Osthoff being led away by armed captors. The kidnappers have said they will kill Osthoff and her driver if Germany does not suspend all contacts with the Iraqi government.

The Association of Muslim Scholars have also pleaded for the Osthoff's release as a way to express support for Germany's opposition to the U.S.-led occupation. Kidnapping has become a strategic component of Islamic militant groups' opposition to coalition forces. Among those kidnapped have been soldiers, aid workers, journalists and civilians involved in reconstruction efforts.

A brutal wave of kidnappings in 2004 and early 2005 involved 225 people, 38 of him were killed. Since then most Western organizations left Iraq or tightened security precautions for remaining workers by keeping them in barricaded compounds and travelling only in heavily guarded convoys.