April 17 2004 at 11:27AM
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By Nayla Razzouk
Baghdad - Two Japanese held hostage in Iraq were released by their captors here on Saturday and turned over to an association of Sunni Muslim scholars hours after a detained American soldier was paraded on an Arabic satellite channel.
"The two were released, they are next to me," Sheikh Abdul Salam Kubaissi, an official at the Committee of Muslim Scholars told AFP here. "They are in very good health."
Freelance journalist Junpei Yasuda, 30, and peace activist Nobutaka Watanabe, 36, had disappeared Wednesday but their "likely" kidnapping was only confirmed by the Japanese government earlier Saturday.
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| 'We don't want to harm our friends' |
Kubaissi said a representative from the Japanese embassy was present at the handover at the headquarters of the committee in west Baghdad.
In Tokyo, the Japanese government has confirmed the release, Kyodo News and Jiji Press agencies reported Saturday. News of the release was relayed immediately to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Jiji said.
Watanabe, 36, told the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) after his release that his captors had a message for the Japanese people.
"The armed group is very angry at the US military occupation of Iraq but Japan is Iraq's friend," an NHK reporter quoted Watanabe as saying in a broadcast seen in Tokyo.
"We don't want to harm our friends. Please tell this to the people of Japan," the group said, adding however that Japan should also withdraw its 550 troops from Iraq. The Tokyo government has rejected the demand.
Kubaissi said the two Japanese were dropped outside the association's office around 11am local time (07h00GMT) and said they had been well treated by their captors.
"One of the Japanese said that his captors determined, after verifying his identity, that he was a honest man and that he opposed the occupation and the presence of Japanese soldiers in Iraq," he added.
Kubaissi said the two Japanese said they wanted to stay in Iraq "to inform and carry out their humanitarian work".
The release of the pair came as Japan prepared to welcome home three other of its nationals freed Thursday after spending a harrowing week as captives of gunmen near Fallujah, the flashpoint city west of Baghdad.
Meanwhile, an Arabic television station on Friday broadcast footage of a US soldier held hostage by insurgents.
Friends of the soldier's family who saw the video confirmed the identity of army private Matthew Maupin, making him the first US soldier known to be held hostage in the war-torn country.
Maupin was one of two soldiers who went missing along with seven US contractors after an attack on a fuel convoy near Baghdad airport that left one dead and 12 wounded a week ago.
US officials said four bodies had been found in shallow graves near the attack site but they have not been identified.
A US contractor, Thomas Hamill, a 43-year-old truck driver and former dairy farmer, has also been shown in captivity on a regional television station.
Also on Friday, three Czech hostages and one Canadian were freed, along with a Chinese national whose kidnapping had not been reported previously.
Other foreigners kidnapped or believed to have been abducted include a Dane, a Jordanian businessman and an Israeli Arab.
A French TV journalist snatched last weekend was freed on Wednesday.
The occupation authorities initially said around 40 foreigners from 12 countries were in rebel hands but later refused to give updated figures as more hostages were seized and others released.
"We're focused on not giving unnecessary information," said Dan Senor, a top coalition spokesperson.
Senor earlier this week spoke of "a very aggressive effort" underway to identify the hostage-takers and rescue the victims.
He gave no further details but said the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other international law enforcement agencies were involved. - Sapa-AFP
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