Humanitarian group suspends its work in Iraq

By ROBERT H. REID
The Associated Press

Margaret Hassan was kidnapped Tuesday.

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CARE director Margaret Hassan, who holds British, Irish and Iraqi citizenship, was seized early Tuesday on her way to work in western Baghdad after gunmen blocked her route and dragged the driver and a companion from the car, her husband said.

Hassan, who is in her early 60s, is among the most widely known humanitarian officials in the Middle East and is also the most high-profile figure to fall victim to a wave of kidnappings in Iraq in recent months.

Al-Jazeera television broadcast a brief video showing Hassan, wearing a white blouse and appearing tense, sitting in a room with bare white walls. The video did not identify the group holding her and contained no demand.

Her husband, Tahseen Ali Hassan, made a plea on Arabic television, saying his wife had been helping Iraq for three decades.

"In the name of humanity, Islam and brotherhood, I appeal to the kidnappers to free

	Tahseen Ali Hassan had a message for wife's captors.

her because she has nothing to do with politics," he told Al-Arabiya.

He told Al-Jazeera that his wife had not received threats and that the kidnappers had not contacted anyone with any demands as of Tuesday night.

The Iraqi government condemned the abductors. "Her kidnap is a clear indication of the base and bad intents of the terrorists who call themselves 'mujahedeen,' a clear insult to Islam and Iraq," the statement said.

Hassan has lived in Baghdad for 30 years, helping supply medicine and other humanitarian aid and speaking out about Iraqis' suffering under international sanctions during the 1990s.

CARE Australia, which coordinates the international agency's programs in Iraq, announced yesterday it had suspended operations because of the abduction, but said staff would not be evacuated. It was unclear how many non-Iraqis work for CARE here.

Many nongovernmental organizations began withdrawing international staffers after attacks on foreigners and their institutions began in earnest in the summer of 2003.

"Our staff are not operating currently there. They're certainly not working there now in light of the current situation," Robert Glasser, CARE Australia's chief executive officer, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Astrid van Genderen Stort, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said it was up to each nongovernmental organization whether to keep staff in the country, noting "the dangers of operating in Iraq."

At least seven other women have been kidnapped in the past six months, but all were later released. Last month, Italian aid workers Simona Torretta and Simona Pari were kidnapped, then freed after three weeks.

At least 30 male hostages have been killed, including three Americans and a Briton beheaded by their captors.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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