The formula of how to deal with hostage takers is brutally simple — in theory. Ignore their demands. The individuals involved are therefore doomed, unless they can escape or be rescued or the captors have a change of heart and release them. If this formula is adhered to rigorously, hostage taking will cease to be effective.
However, this has not been strictly applied, except by those who have come to Iraq driven by a missionary zeal. Many governments, whose nationals were taken hostages, have refused to stick to the formula. Unlike those who have staked their national prestige on “crushing the opponents”, they feel that they have no such stake in the outcome. That was the logic which prompted the Philippines to withdraw its tiny contingent of 50 soldiers in July in order to save the life of a Filipino truck driver threatened with beheading. Italy, which is in anguish over reports that two female aid workers taken hostage in Iraq had been murdered, has refused to negotiate with extremists. But several reports suggest that Rome had paid a ransom — alleged to be nine million dollars — in June for the release of three other Italian hostages held in Iraq.
The added complication now is that it is difficult to know who are the hostage takers. Among them, there are those who genuinely believe that the tactic will sap the morale of the nations who have their people in Iraq helping the US-UK coalition either directly or in support roles. Their hope is to sow anguish and confusion by seizing innocent people, broadcasting videos of their fear and humiliation in captivity and in a final cruel refinement, filming their murder. It does not seem to matter to them that these crimes do not lead to the fulfillment of their demands or that the tactic has been condemned by all those who sympathize with their cause. Their resistance to occupation has support across the world, but their method of slaughtering defenseless men and women has turned their friends into enemies.
There are others in the arena now. A great number of private operators have got into the act, with profit as their only motive. The mystery surrounding the kidnapping of the two Italian women, Simona Torretta and Simona Pari, is a case in point. A spokesman for the influential Sunni Committee of Muslim Scholars in Baghdad has said the two hostages are being held by a group with no relation to the insurgency against the US-led occupation. “I do not think they killed them because the material gain from holding them is big,” he said. “I have my doubts about the whole operation from the start because the style and method all indicate that the kidnappers are an organized gang with no connection to the resistance.” He believes that the motive behind the kidnapping was inconsistent with the goals of the insurgency, whose leaders have claimed in several statements that it would only go after those cooperating with and aiding the US-led occupation.
Whoever is behind hostage taking, it looks that it will come to an end only when normalcy return to Iraq. That is a long, long way away.
