Neu Leonstein
19-12-2005, 03:26
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4540540.stm
But her driver is apparently still a hostage, although apparently he'll be released soon as well.
A bit of background:
Susanne Osthoff was an archaeologist who had been in Iraq for many years under Saddam. She learned to speak Arabic, married an Iraq, had children with him and then they divorced.
When the war started she initially wanted to save as many archifacts as possible from destruction and looting, but once she saw what was happening to the locals, she decided to concentrate on them.
Since then she'd been organising aid convois and so on, even into Baghdad while the city was being attacked by the Americans. Apparently she'd been in the first truck of a whole convoi driving straight through the battlefield, although I only heard that once on DW TV and can't confirm it.
Then she was kidnapped (the first German hostage), and the Captors wanted Germany to cut all ties with Iraq. Merkel told them politely to fuck off, although other than the training of Iraqi Police, Germany doesn't really have anything to do with Iraq.
So now they reckon they might've paid a ransom, officially the captors said they now knew that Osthoff wasn't a foreign agent.
No word on the other hostages though.
But her driver is apparently still a hostage, although apparently he'll be released soon as well.
A bit of background:
Susanne Osthoff was an archaeologist who had been in Iraq for many years under Saddam. She learned to speak Arabic, married an Iraq, had children with him and then they divorced.
When the war started she initially wanted to save as many archifacts as possible from destruction and looting, but once she saw what was happening to the locals, she decided to concentrate on them.
Since then she'd been organising aid convois and so on, even into Baghdad while the city was being attacked by the Americans. Apparently she'd been in the first truck of a whole convoi driving straight through the battlefield, although I only heard that once on DW TV and can't confirm it.
Then she was kidnapped (the first German hostage), and the Captors wanted Germany to cut all ties with Iraq. Merkel told them politely to fuck off, although other than the training of Iraqi Police, Germany doesn't really have anything to do with Iraq.
So now they reckon they might've paid a ransom, officially the captors said they now knew that Osthoff wasn't a foreign agent.
No word on the other hostages though.