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Australia sends team to Iraq
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-15 14:17 Australia, unable to verify a
report that two of its citizens had been taken hostage in Iraq, said on
Wednesday it had sent a logistics team to the country and still was trying to
account for all of its nationals there.
More than 36 hours after the original report based on a type-written
statement issued in southern Iraq, Australia had had no further word. Groups
that seize foreigners in Iraq usually provide some evidence to identify the
people they are holding.
While saying the hostage-taking claim could be a
hoax, Australian officials on Tuesday activated a contingency plan which
included putting hostage negotiators on standby.
A logistics team also flew out of the western city of Perth on Tuesday but
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer denied a report in The Australian newspaper on
Wednesday that it was a team of 12-30 elite SAS soldiers.
"They're people just to assist on the ground, they're not SAS soldiers or ...
storm troopers or anything," Downer said.
In the statement distributed on Monday in Samarra, a rebel stronghhold north
of Baghdad, a group calling itself the Iraqi Islamic Secret Army said the
Australian hostages would be killed unless Prime Minister John Howard announced
the withdrawal of Australia's 850 troops from in and around Iraq within 24
hours.
Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs said it had so far accounted for
221 Australians out of a possible 229 citizens in Iraq.
Downer earlier said that the likely numbers of Australians in Iraq were "a
moveable feast" but added he could not rule out the possibility Australians had
been taken hostage.
He said the embassy had also been in contact with 14 security firms working
in Iraq. "None of those security firms have any knowledge of anybody being taken
hostage," he said.
Howard said he was guardedly optimistic the claim would turn out to be a
hoax.
"I suppose as each hour goes by, you grow cautiously more hopeful but I don't
think we should think that it still may not be true," Howard told Australian
radio.
Australia's role in the US-led war in Iraq has become an important issue in
an Oct. 9 election, with opposition Labor saying in the past it wants the troops
home by Christmas if it wins office.
Howard's conservative government is adamant the troops will remain as long as
they are needed.
Australia's election has attracted international attention because it
precedes two others likely to be fought largely on security and the war on
terror + the US presidential vote on Nov. 2 and a British election expected in
May or June.
Australia's Labor opposition was angry that it was not consulted before the
logistics team left on Tuesday, claiming it was a breach of caretaker provisions
which require the opposition to be consulted on all major initiatives before an
election.
"I have no idea as to why the defence team's being sent, it's purpose,"
Latham told Australian radio.
"... if we were to win this election in three-and-a-half weeks time we'd be
in charge of the operation," he said.
Australia angered Spain and the Philippines in July when it accused them of
encouraging terrorists by pulling their troops out of Iraq. The Philippines
brought their troops home early to save the life of a Filipino hostage.
Downer stressed that the hostage negotiating team being put on stand-by did
not signal a change in Australian policy.
"We would do everything we possibly could to get Australians released, short
of giving in to blackmail," he said.
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