Posted on 09/29/2004 7:57:30 PM PDT by familyop
ROME (Reuters) - Safely home in Italy, two women aid workers have spoken of returning to Iraq despite a three-week hostage ordeal as their overjoyed nation shrugged off reports that a ransom was paid to free them.
Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, both 29, said they were taught about Islam and not harmed. After a hero's welcome in Italy late on Tuesday, they looked to put the kidnap behind them.
"I hope to return to Iraq soon. It's a country that I really love," Pari said on Wednesday. "We were always treated with a lot of respect."
Torretta was quoted as saying she would "do it all over again, with all of the consequences".
"We never understood. But they apologised for kidnapping us and they even asked us for forgiveness," she told reporters.
They were blindfolded throughout the ordeal and never saw their captors, a source said after the women spoke to police.
Foreign Minister Franco Frattini tried to quash talk about a ransom cash payment, saying Italy just capitalised on years of good deeds in the Arab world to secure their release.
"We've cashed a big credit. That's the ransom we've paid," he said. "A credit for all of the good things Italy has done."
But most newspapers and a leading figure in the ruling coalition spoke openly of a ransom of $1 million (550,000 pounds) or more. The issue caused little controversy in Italy, which has a long history of paying money to home-grown kidnap gangs.
"Yes it was paid, it was right because the life of the two girls was more important than the money. I think it was paid by the intelligence services," Gustavo Selva, chairman of parliament's foreign affairs committee, said.
CRIME OR IDEOLOGY?
Officials in Iraq said payments were fuelling the kidnapping trade. "The reason for the acceleration in kidnappings is simply because ransoms are being paid," said Sabah Kadhim, a spokesman for Iraq's Interior Ministry.
Around 130 foreigners have been seized in a wave of abductions that began in April. Most have been released, but around 30 have been killed. Hundreds of Iraqis have also been seized but their plight rarely makes world headlines.
According to Italy's Red Cross representative, Maurizio Scelli, the two Italians were threatened with death because, he said, the hostages had found their names on a list they believed identified people spying for the United States.
"They were considered spies because their names appeared on a list which seemed to come from the offices of the U.S. secret services," Scelli, who was involved in the women's release, told a TV talk show, according to ANSA news agency.
Another Red Cross member swore on the Koran to intermediaries that the Simonas were not spies, Scelli said.
NO VIDEOS
The case of "the two Simonas" differed from many other high-profile abductions in that the kidnappers showed no images of them throughout their captivity and did not force them to plead for political concessions before cameras.
A very different set of kidnappers are holding Kenneth Bigley, who was shown in a new video on Wednesday pleading with Prime Minister Tony Blair to meet his kidnappers' demands and save his life.
Blair said on Wednesday he was ready to open up contact with Bigley's captors if they made contact, but he has repeatedly said he would not negotiate with them.
Two French journalists have also appeared in a video that called for a change in French policy.
The Simonas' kidnapping was also very different from that of Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni, who was killed last month after Rome refused to withdraw its 2,700 troops from Iraq.
For Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a strong U.S. ally who has promised to keep soldiers in Iraq for as long as necessary, the Simonas' release was a triumph -- with or without a ransom.
Italian newspapers quoted him as saying: "Controversy about the ransom? I don't think there can be any."
So why is this freed italian's eye being returned to Iraq???
LOL
So the "were their lives worth $1 million or more" question aside, were their lives worth the number of lives of our soldiers and other civilians who will be taken with $1 million or more worth of hardware?
LOL! ...didn't see that until you brought it up, Chad.
So what do you think?
So the "were their lives worth $1 million or more" question aside, were their lives worth the number of lives of our soldiers and other civilians who will be taken with $1 million or more worth of hardware?
$1,000,000 buys a lot of RPG's.....
smells fishy
remember, these were high profile anti-war activists
getting abducted, getting released (under circumstances that conflict directly with the western axiom "we don't negotiate with terrorists"), then WANTING to return to Iraq, all serve the political agenda of these women
smells fishy
This whole thing seems odd to me. I smell a rat.
How much will the next ransom be? And the next?
As a rule hostages aren't so eager to return to the place of their abduction, and muslims aren't known to be so civil to Christians when they kidnap them.
So, the question is: Was there really a kidnapping?
I think paying ransoms are a cop out and only serves to encourage more...
rat or fish or both
Pretty sneaky way to transfer funds to terrorists. No middlemen, no administrative costs, no "for the children" front.
I bet if those men who were slain by the terrorists got a chance to go free they would not be singing the praises of iraq
Yep you're right.
I think you all have a good point. There are some odd characteristics in the situation--things that don't fit.
Those two women had been in Iraq for quite a few years. I forgot how long, offhand...since '94, maybe, for at least one of them...or '98 or something like that?
The Iraqis think these two were spies too, only they think they were on the side of the terrorists. They won't be welcome if they go back to Iraq.
Treated with respect? All righty then.
Stockholm syndrome.
New tactic of the Religion of Peace: If you want to teach someone about Islam, you must first blindfold them and then hold them hostage for three weeks. New educational technique, which admittedly is a big advance over the technique we've gotten used to: beheading.
Oh, I just re read it and saw the magic word: RANSOM.
Must have been in the millions.
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