HOSTAGES ARE PEOPLE, TOO.

Apr. 22, 2005 19:09
Iraq: Kidnappers threaten 3 Romanian, US hostages

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq

An Iraqi militant group threatened to kill three kidnapped Romanian journalists and an American unless Romanian troops leave Iraq within four days, Al-Jazeera reported, airing a video showing the four captives, held since last month.

The video showed the three Romanians - two men and a woman - sitting crosslegged against a wall with their hands chained. The woman, sitting in the middle - said to be Marie Jeanne Ion - is seen talking but Al-Jazeera did not air the audio.

The footage then shows a man said to be an Iraqi-American translator kidnapped along with the Romanians, sitting alone, hands also bound. Gunmen stand on either side of him, pointing an automatic rifle and a pistol at his head.
There was no independent confirmation of the tape's authenticity. Three Romanian journalistss and an Iraq-American who was working as their translator were reportedly kidnapped March 28 near their Baghdad hotel shortly after interviewing interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. They appeared a day later in a video aired on Al-Jazeera.

A logo of the "Muadh ibn Jabal Brigades" appears in the footage aired Friday. The Al-Jazeera anchor said the woman says in the video that their captors gave the Romanian government four days since the date of tape broadcasting to withdraw its forces from Iraq or they will be killed.
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Does this trouble anyone else?

Terrorists take hostages. They make these tapes, showing their captives. Al-jazeera airs them. Then what?

Not much.

Out of sight, out of mind. There is a dehumanization occurring here, as though the hostages are just another statistic in the long list of suffering in the Middle East. We pause for a minute at the news, shake our heads, and move on to the latest revelation in the Michael Jackson trial.

If the media don't obsess about it, we don't.

Another scenario: We don't care about them, so the media don't bother to report much on these victims.

Either way, it reveals a lack of concern that I find disturbing.