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Kidnap wives' long wait in 'hell'

  • Story Highlights
  • Four South African security guards kidnapped 10 months ago in Iraq
  • No word from them or their captors since December 2006
  • Wives say waiting for news on their husbands' fate is like living in "hell"
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By Robyn Curnow
CNN
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PRETORIA, South Africa (CNN) -- Ten months have passed since four South African security guards were abducted in Iraq, but with no word from them or their kidnappers, the men's wives are increasingly desperate to know their fate.

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Johann Enslin, left, and Callie Scheepers

On December 10, 2006, Andre Durant, Callie Scheepers, Johann Enslin and Hardus Greef were protecting a convoy of water and food en route to an American army base, according to Enslin's wife Marie.

"Apparently at a road block, which was a legitimate roadblock, they were taken by men which was in uniform, police uniform," she says. "That is why they didn't suspect anything funny and got out of the cars."

Since then the wives of the four men say life has been "hell."

Enslin joined Elmarie Greef and Retha Scheepers at the Pretoria home of Lourika Durant. They share photos and stories and speak to the media -- hoping to raise the profile of their missing men.

Lourika Durant tells CNN her husband, Andre, phoned her 11 days after they were taken at a roadblock in Baghdad. "He said, 'I am okay. Please give my greetings to the children. We will be released soon. And don't stop to pray.'

"We thought that December he would be freed for Christmas but, we are still waiting."

Since that phone call, none of the wives have heard anything else from the missing men or their captors. They are perplexed as to why no one has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.

There is no word if the men are dead or alive.

"We have thought about death already but we know in our hearts they are still alive. But there is no proof. No proof," Scheepers says.

The families say they have made numerous appeals in Arabic in Iraqi newspapers and on Iraqi television.

Lourika Durant runs a Web site dedicated to finding her husband.

With no new information the woman say they are getting desperate. Their children are nearly a year older and they say they cannot face the prospect of another lonely Christmas without their husbands.

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"We have been praying for a righteous person to come to our aid. Just for the sake of 11 children, four wives, numerous brothers and sisters, parents, parents-in-law, grandmothers and grandfathers who honestly can't understand why all of this is happening," says an emotional Enslin, with tears running down her face.

Scheepers passes her a tissue to wipe her eyes and Enslin continues, sobbing gently, "At times like this you just say, ' God have mercy on us.' Please let this end. Whatever happens, let this just come to an end." E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend

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