Emotions ran high as the wives of the four South African men known as the Baghdad Four blasted their husbands' former employers and accused them of lying and abandoning them and their partners.
The scathing attack, which saw the four women making an impassioned appeal to the kidnappers to release their husbands, was made at a National Press Club briefing in Pretoria yesterday.
The four men, Andre Durant, 38, Johann Enslin, 48, Hardus Greeff, 43, and Callie Scheepers, 48, were kidnapped three years ago on December 10 2006 while escorting a truck outside Baghdad.
No one has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings.
'We were told to move on with our lives and declare our husbands dead' The four, who have been missing for 1 074 days, all worked for Safenet Security Services (SSS).
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Scheepers had been in Iraq for nearly two months, Durant for 18 months and Enslin and Greeff for two years.
Breaking down in tears repeatedly the men's wives said they did not want vengeance.
"All we want is for our husbands to come back home.
"We are here to say to the kidnappers please show compassion and kindness.
'I cannot take it anymore. I just want some sort of news' "Marriage is a sacred and holy union between two people who love each other. This union of love, our union of love, bridges the division between different cultures and religions and we appeal to the kidnappers to please return our husbands to us," said Enslin's wife, Marie.
Accompanying Enslin were Elmarie Greeff, Retha Scheepers and Lourika Durant.
Urging South African policemen and soldiers planning on working in Iraq to carefully consider their decision before embarking on trips to war zones, Enslin said their grief was beyond comprehension.
"Not until you have been here will you understand our pain, which has been made worse by the way the company, which our husbands were so loyal to, have treated us," she said.
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