German Hostage Freed, Video Shows US Contractor Killing

While German aid worker Susanne Osthoff was preparing to leave Iraqi after a long abduction ordeal, a militant group broadcast on Monday, December 19, a videotape showing the execution of a man it said was an American contractor held hostage in Iraq. "Osthoff wishes to spend several days with her daughter but she has indicated that she will leave Iraq in the near future," German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger told a press conference, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP). The 43-year-old archeologist and aid worker has a 12-year-old daughter from a failed marriage to an Iraqi. Jaeger said the German authorities have been assured that Osthoff's Iraqi driver Shalid Al-Shimani had also been freed following her release on Sunday, December 18. The par spent 24 days in the hands of unknown kidnappers after being seized on November 25 in the Nineveh region of northwest Iraq. Muslim leaders in Germany have condemned the abduction of the German archaeologist and offered assistance to secure her release. Government Intervention Jaeger said that "the German government and the German embassy in Baghdad were involved" in securing the hostage's release but declined to give further details. Osthoff's sister Anja last week complained over a lack of public support for her sister, whose plight initially failed to ignite the same emotional response among Germans as was seen in countries like France and Italy which have also had nationals taken hostage in Iraq. But as the saga continued, public support for Osthoff grew and her release was greeted with joy. "It is the best news of the Christmas season. She is alive, she is free, she is in good health," the tabloid Bild newspaper said. Osthoff was the first German national to be taken hostage in Iraq and the abduction posed the first serious crisis for Chancellor Angela Merkel since she took office last month. The daily Berliner Zeitung said Merkel's government had "acquitted itself well in its first foreign policy crisis." "The chancellor and her foreign minister acted with discretion," it said. The Tagesspiegel said it was still unclear who had kidnapped Osthoff and her driver, while Bild asked whether the government had paid a ransom to secure her release. "Even after her release the affair remains mysterious," added the daily. Merkel had appealed to the kidnappers to release Osthoff and her driver, but insisted that Berlin would not be blackmailed. Videotape In another development, the self-styled Islamic Army in Iraq broadcast Monday an Internet videotape showing the execution of a man it said was Ronald Schulz, an American contractor held hostage in Iraq. "As we promised, we broadcast a videotape of the killing of the American advisor (at the ministry of housing)," said a statement accompanying the videotape. It showed a blindfolded and handcuffed man on his knees being shot by a machine gun from behind. The gunman was standing some two meters (yards) behind the alleged hostage who fell to the ground after the shots were fired. The video did not show the face of the victim, and it was impossible to identify him conclusively. The militant group said in an Internet statement on December 8 that it had killed the American hostage but the US State Department said at the time it could not confirm whether Schulz had been killed. More than 200 foreigners and thousands of Iraqis have been kidnapped since the US invasion-turned-occupation of Iraq. Fifty-two foreign hostages are known to have been killed by their captors. Abductions are blamed by US authorities on the ghostly Jordanian-born Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi. Most Iraqi resistance groups always distance themselves from the slaughter of hostages. In September, the International Association for Muslim Scholars (IAMS) vigorously denounced the kidnapping and killing of civilians as an aggression against others, calling particularly for the swift release of all civilians taken hostage in Iraq.

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