Muslim Envoy May Return to Iraq for CPT Hostages

The Muslim Association of Britain envoy said Sunday that he may return to Iraq to resume negotiations for the release of Dr Norman Kember and the three other Christian Peacemaker Teams hostages who have been held since November 2005.

|TOP|The comments by Anas Altikriti, who was born in Iraq, on BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House programme Sunday morning follow vigils held Saturday for Professor Kember in Birmingham and London.

Mr Altikriti, who already visited Iraq in December 2005 to seek the release of the four men, expressed his disappointment, along with Pax Christi general secretary Pat Gaffney, over the lack of attention to the CPT hostages in the mainstream media in recent weeks.

He and Ms. Gaffney, who heads the British section of an international Catholic peace network, said that a high profile for the case of the men was important for a successful outcome, reports Ekklesia.

Mr Altikriti told the BBC that the most frustrating aspect of the situation from the perspective of those seeking the release of the four men was that direct conversation had still not been possible with the abductors, a little known group running under the name of Swords of Truth (Righteousness) Brigades.

|AD|The Muslim envoy is now considering a return to Iraq to see whether any new leads have arisen which could bring about the safe release of the men.

Hopes for such a release have been boosted by the release of French engineer, Bernard Planche, who was released outside Abu Ghraib, twenty miles outside Baghdad, on Saturday.

Christian Peacemaker Teams were the first to make known the serious maltreatment and abuse of many of the 5,000 Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib, a former notorious detention and torture centre of the Saddam Hussein regime, by US forces who occupied the site in 2003.

The kidnapping of the four men has met with the widespread condemnation of the Muslim community worldwide, with vigils and appeals for the men’s release continuing in Iraq as the profile of the abduction continues to diminish in the Western media.

The abduction of Norman Kember, Tom Fox, Jim Loney and Harmeet Singh Sooden has united people across countries and faiths in vigils and prayers, with CPT itself establishing an Epiphany vigil outside the White House in Washington DC on Friday.

CPT have asked to talk directly to President George W. Bush regarding the situation in Iraq and American policy, reports Ekklesia.