IRAQ: The mother of one of four peace activists kidnapped in Baghdad has made a televised appeal for their release as five Iraqi Sunni organisations condemned the threat to execute them on Thursday if Iraqi prisoners are not freed.
The call by Manjeet Kaur Sooden on behalf of her son, Harmeet Singh Sooden, a Canadian citizen, and a statement from the Iraqi groups were beamed into Iraq by al-Jazeera, the most popular satellite channel in the Arab world.
The other three hostages are American Tom Fox, Briton Norman Kember and James Loney, also a Canadian.
They belong to North American Christian Peacemakers teams which work in Iraq and the Palestinian territories.
In Iraq, they trace and press for the release of civilians who have disappeared into US and Iraqi prisons, while in the Palestinian territories they interpose between Israelis and Palestinians and take part in protests against Israel's West Bank wall.
A spokeswoman for Christian Peacemakers, Peggy Gish, called the seizure of the men "a terrible act against humanitarian aid workers who had gone to help the people of Iraq".
There is serious concern that they could be executed, as was Irish-born Margaret Hassan, the head of a charity in Iraq, who was kidnapped in October 2004.
In Baghdad, Anas Altikriti, former president of the Muslim Association of Britain and a prominent member of the anti-war movement, met senior figures in the Association of Muslim Scholars, an organisation which has contacts with insurgents and has won the release of some hostages.
The Soldiers of Truth, a previously unknown faction, has broadcast a video of the men and claims they are "spies".
But this has been denied by all those calling for their release, particularly the Palestinians.
Palestinians have demonstrated in a number of West Bank towns in solidarity with the men while the Popular Committee against the Wall, national and Islamic Forces in Hebron (where Peacemaker teams have been operating for a decade), and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the armed wing of the mainstream Fatah movement, have condemned the kidnapping.
The senior Muslim religious figure in Jerusalem, Mufti Ikrema Sabri, said the "aid workers have stood beside the Palestinian people and its our duty now to stand beside them".
A petition calling for their release is also being circulated on the internet.
Among the signatories are Irishman Denis Halliday, the former head of UN humanitarian relief in Iraq; US anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan; US war critic Noam Chomsky; Indian novelist and environmentalist Arundhati Roy, and British commentator Tariq Ali.
All of the appeals are being broadcast by al-Jazeera and al- Arabiya, another popular channel.
