Downer pleads for hostage release
SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- Iraqi religious and tribal leaders could hold the key to securing the release of an Australian man kidnapped by militants in Iraq, the Australian government said Wednesday.
The operation to release 63-year old Douglas Wood has swung into action with the arrivial in Iraq of a high level negotiating team from Australia and the appearance on Arab satellite television of Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
Downer pleaded for the hostage takers to release their capitive.
"He has been in Iraq helping to improve the lives of Iraqis and we would ask that he be released," Downer told Al Jazeera television.
"He (Wood) is not a well man. He has significant heart problems and he has a wife and he has three brothers and a child and he's 63, and he wants to be able to see his family again," he said.
"We would appeal to the people who have taken him hostage to release him."
Wood has not been heard of since he was shown on a video, released two days ago, pleading for his life surrounded by armed, masked militants.
Australia's Defence Minister Robert Hill, who returned Wednesday from a visit to Iraq said he was not confident Wood, a resident of California, would be released alive.
"You can't look at the history of hostage taking over the last few years in Iraq and have confidence in that outcome," Hill told Associated Press.
"In a number of instances where hostages have been successfully recovered, it's been either tribal or religious leaders that have played a key role in facilitating that recovery," he said.
A high level team of Australian defence, police and political officers arrived in Iraq Tuesday night to try to secure Wood's release.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has also pledged to help the Australian negotiators following a request from Downer.
Downer told Al Jazeera that the government had little information about the kidnapping or the conditions of Wood's detention.
"We have been talking with a number of people in Iraq, in particular the Iraqi Government, but other Iraqis and also some of the foreigners there," Downer said.
"And we are gradually able to get a bit of a picture of what's happened to him, so we hope that those people might know the people who have taken him hostage (and) will impress upon the hostage-takers that Mr Wood should be released," he said.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard reiterated Tuesday that while everything would be done to free Wood, the Australian Government would not pay a ransom or remove its troops from Iraq.
Under the Howard government, Australia has been a strong supporter of the Bush administration and has contributed forces and equipment to the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Australian sent 2,000 troops, along with ships and aircraft, to take part in the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003 and later reduced the number to about 950 after the ousting of Saddam Hussein.
Howard's decision to take part in the war was not popular, but voters returned his center-right coalition to power in October last year and rejected an opposition candidate who had promised to withdraw if elected.
In February, Howard announced that about 450 additional Australian soldiers would be sent to the south of the country to help protect Japanese engineers based there and to assist in training Iraqi soldiers.
Those forces arrived last month. There have been no Australian forces killed so far in Iraq, though several have been injured.
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