Baghdad: Hundreds of Iraqi's demonstrate for release of 'Mama Margaret' Hassan by The Independent / The Australian 11:35am 20th Oct, 2004   26 October 2004    "Hundreds demonstrate for release of 'Mama Margaret' Hassan", by Kim Sengupta in Baghdad. (The Independent)    Hundreds of people took to the streets in Baghdad yesterday to show their support for kidnapped aid worker Margaret Hassan - the first time there has been such a public protest against an abduction since the wave of hostage-taking began.    Many of those taking part were disabled people who had benefited from the work carried out by Mrs Hassan, the country director for the charity Care International. Among them were 30 pupils from a school for deaf children carrying her photographs asking for the release of "Mama Margaret".    However, the kidnappings continued with the snatching of the youngest foreign hostage so far, a Lebanese boy aged seven. Mohammed Hamad was taken away by armed men while walking from his school at Diyala province, east of Baghdad. It was reported that his father has received a ransom demand for $150,000 (£81,500). The Lebanese embassy said it was working with Iraqi authorities to secure the boy's release.    The demonstration for Mrs Hassan, who is married to an Iraqi and has lived in the country for 30 years, took place outside the offices of Care in Baghdad. The organisation has suspended operations in Iraq since she was kidnapped last week. The kidnappers subsequently released a video in which she was seen weeping and pleading for Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, not to send British troops north from Basra to join American operations.    Ahmed Jabir, a boy in a wheelchair, said: " If it wasn't for her, we would probably have died. She built us a hospital and took care of us. She made us feel happy again. I can truly say that we love her, and we are very upset by what has happened."    Nasrat al-Asdi, who had brought the children from the deaf school, said: "She has been invaluable for them. Not only did she give us money for hearing aids but she reconstructed the institute. We could not believe they would do this to someone like her."    24 October 2004    "Iraqis protest after silence greets plea for hostage", by Torcuil Crichton (The Sunday Herald)    Some of the 20,000 Iraqis who have benefited from projects set up by kidnapped aid worker Margaret Hassan are to demand her release in Baghdad tomorrow after televised pleas from her colleagues and husband drew no response last night from her still anonymous captors..    Care’s plea came late on Friday night and was read on the Arab television station Al-Jazeera by the organisation’s secretary-general, Denis Caillaux. He said Hassan was dedicated to the Iraqi people and called for her “immediate release”. Care broke its silence on the kidnapping after a distressed Hassan was shown in a video on Friday.. Hassan, Care’s director in Iraq, sobbed as she said she did not want to die like Ken Bigley..    The Care statement said: “She is a naturalised Iraqi citizen and always holds the people of Iraq in her heart. Care joins with many of the people whose lives Mrs Hassan has touched over her decades of service in Iraq in reaching out to her captors to appeal to their humanity..    Hassan, who has lived in Iraq for 30 years, looked tired and distraught. The tape did not include any claim of responsibility and her kidnappers were not pictured. Hassan’s husband, Tahsin Hassan spoke of his pain in seeing his wife crying on television. “I ask you in the name of Islam and Arabism, and during the holiest Muslim month for my wife to return to me,” he said.    October 20, 2004    Charity urges aid worker's release. (The Australian)    Islamic Relief USA, part of the Islamic Relief Worldwide charity and development group, today called for the release of Margaret Hassan, employed by CARE Australia as head of CARE's humanitarian relief operations in Iraq.    "We call on Mrs Hassan's captives to recall the humanitarian work she has been doing in Iraq for over 25 years and release her so she can carry on her good work," said Arif Shaikh, a spokesman for the Burbank, California-based Islamic Relief USA.    The holy Islamic month of Ramadan, which began Friday, "is a month of mercy, and a month of charity", he said. "It is during this month that the work of Mrs Hassan and CARE should be increased. We hope Mrs Hassan remains unharmed and is safely released to her family."    Islamic Relief Worldwide is a relief and development group operating in 28 countries. The group has been working in Iraq since 1997, and has worked with CARE on humanitarian projects in several countries. Mrs Hassan, who is married to an Iraqi and is a naturalised Iraqi citizen with dual nationality, was seized while on her way to work in Baghdad, CARE officials said.    20 October 2004    "Baghdad Authorities 'deeply worried' about Care Aid Worker Margaret Hassan", by Kim Sengupta.(The Independent)    British, American and Iraqi authorities were trying last night to secure the freedom of Margaret Hassan, the Irish-born aid worker kidnapped in Baghdad early yesterday. A video broadcast on the Arabic television station al-Jazeera which also showed her passport, credit cards and identity cards was delivered by a militant group which claimed responsibility for the abduction, but did not identify itself or issue demands.    Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, said: "This is somebody who has lived in Iraq for 30 years, someone who is immensely respected, someone who is doing their level best to help the country. We don't know which group it is, so there's really a limit at this stage to what I can say to you. We will do whatever we can, obviously."    The authorities in Baghdad said they were deeply worried for Mrs Hassan's safety. Mrs Hassan, the director of Care International for Iraq for the past 12 years, was abducted by gunmen in west Baghdad as she drove to work just after 7.30am. The organisation does not employ armed guards. Her fellow workers said there were no warnings that she might be in danger, nor had she expressed any worries.    The kidnapping comes less than two weeks after the beheading of the British contractor Kenneth Bigley, who was held for three weeks by a group believed to be led by the Jordanian-born militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.    The abduction came as a shock even in Baghdad, a city which has become used to the routine of hostage taking. Mrs Hassan was a familiar and highly respected figure in Baghdad, where she lives with her Iraqi husband, and has dual Iraqi and British nationality.    A Care spokesman said last night: "As far as we know, Margaret is unharmed. She has been providing humanitarian relief to the people of Iraq in a professional career spanning more than 25 years.    "She considers herself an Iraqi national. Iraq is her home, and she never considered coming back to Britain."    Several other women aid workers have been kidnapped in Iraq since the war, but all have been freed. Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, both Italian, aged 29 and working for a humanitarian organisation in Baghdad, were released on 28 September. Nahoko Takato, a 34-year-old Japanese, was kidnapped and released along with several Japanese men.    Astrid van Genderen Stort, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said last night in Amman: "We, the UN, decided last year not to have international presence any more because we deemed the situation too dangerous. The kidnappings of the Italians should have alerted others to the dangers of working in Iraq."    THE CHARITY VOID    Care International, which has been active in Iraq since the 1991 Gulf War, pulled out its international staff last autumn and now directs its Iraqi relief work from the Jordanian capital, Amman.    The only international non-governmental organisation to have maintained programmes in central and southern Iraq, Care now employs 30 Iraqi nationals in its Baghdad office. Other aid agencies, including Médecins sans Frontières, have also pulled out international staff and relocated to Jordan. The United Nations, whose Iraqi headquarters was attacked in August last year, no longer has international staff in Iraq.    The International Red Cross, which reduced foreign staff to 29 after the bombing of its headquarters in October last year, operates with about 429 Iraqi staff. The European Union relies on Care and the International Red Cross to direct its aid to Iraqis.    # The Universal Rights Network calls for the immediate release of Care humanitarian aid worker: Margaret Hassan and all the other hostages currently being held in Iraq.
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