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(回答先: 香田さんの実家や市役所に中傷の電話・メール 邦人人質（朝日新聞） 投稿者 天空橋救国戦線 日時 2004 年 10 月 29 日 13:28:09)
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=32106
Japan races against clock to free hostage in Iraq
AFP: 10/28/2004
TOKYO, Oct 28 (AFP) - Japan raced against the clock Thursday to free a young Japanese hostage in Iraq but had little reason for hope hours before the deadline set by al-Qaeda-linked kidnappers for his killing.
With few leads on the whereabouts of 24-year-old Shosei Koda, who had reportedly gone to Baghdad as a tourist and searched in vain for a hotel, the government mounted a diplomatic drive for help and information.
"We are making appeals (for help) to foreign governments and Iraqis who have expressed understanding for Japan, but the situation is very obscure," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters.
"We can only continue our efforts," he said.
Japan's Senior Vice Foreign Minister Shuzen Tanigawa also met Iraq's deputy health minister Amar al-Saffar in the Jordanian capital Amman before heading into talks with King Abdullah II.
Koizumi has already rejected the militants' demands that Japan pull its 600 troops out of Iraq. The deployment is the country's first to an area of active fighting since World War II.
Koda's mother and elder brother from the southern province of Fukuoda were flying to Tokyo late Thursday to make a last-minute appeal over the Arabic satellite network Al-Jazeera.
"What worried us was that the criminal group said Koda was linked to the Self-Defence Forces," foreign ministry spokesman Hatsuhisa Takashima said, referring to Japan's military.
"This is not true and we thought the message would be most effective if it came from the family," Takashima said.
News reports described Koda as an idealistic but naive young man who travelled to Baghdad by bus, failed to find a hotel and did not have enough money left for a return ticket to Jordan.
Koda's parents said they had not heard from the hostage since he finished a working holiday in New Zealand in July but that he had a "tender side".
"We imagine he was moved by the suffering of Iraqis and wanted to see it for himself in order to think about his own future," his father Masumi, 54, and mother Setsuko, 50, said in a statement.
A video released over the Internet late Tuesday showed three armed, masked men surrounding Koda, dressed in a T-shirt and long hair. The hostage announced calmly that the militants would behead him if Japan did not pull out troops from Iraq within 48 hours.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda, the top government spokesman, said Japan had asked for "the cooperation of 25 countries including Iraq, the United States and Britain" to free Koda.
But he added: "Unfortunately, we have no information about the hostage. We are trying to get as much information including the location of the hostage."
Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura spoke by telephone with US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Iraqi interim prime minister Iyad Allawi to request all possible help to save Koda, an official said.
Japan, which strongly supported the US-led invasion of Iraq, was able to save three Japanese aid workers and two journalists taken hostage in April through days of mediation.
But the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper reported Thursday that the Committee of Muslim Scholars, believed to be behind the April release, had turned down requests to cooperate this time.
"We declined. We're sorry but we can't," a senior official of the group was quoted as saying.
The Muslim cleric said there was little room for maneuver as Koizumi had "infuriated" the militants by quickly rejecting the demand to withdraw troops.
The cleric also said it would be meaningless to try to negotiate with the kidnappers. They are linked to Iraq's most wanted man Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, who is blamed for a string of attacks and abductions.
Japanese officials declined comment on the report.
Newspaper editorials showed little sympathy for Koda. The best-selling Yomiuri Shimbun wrote: "The naivete of just one person could deal a serious blow to the democratization and reconstruction process in Iraq."
The Asahi Shimbun, which opposed Japan's support for the US-led invasion of Iraq, said it understood that Koizumi had to reject the militants' demands.
10/28/2004 15:54 GMT - AFP
国民だけでなく、マスコミも人質には冷淡との報道。
読売と朝日がさらされている。
Newspaper editorials showed little sympathy for Koda. The best-selling Yomiuri Shimbun wrote:
"The naivete of just one person could deal a serious blow to the democratization and reconstruction
process in Iraq."
The Asahi Shimbun, which opposed Japan's support for the US-led invasion of Iraq, said it understood
that Koizumi had to reject the militants' demands.
題名には必ず「阿修羅さんへ」と記述してください。