British hostage's wife calls for release
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-05 08:43

The wife of a British hostage held in Iraq made an emotional appeal Sunday for his release, saying on Al-Jazeera television that the Christian peace activist came to help the Iraqi people.

Pat Kember, wife of Norman Kember, said her 74-year-old husband "is a very caring man" who wanted to help alleviate the suffering of the Iraqi people.

Speaking English with an Arabic voiceover, she urged the kidnappers to release her husband and three fellow activists so they could continue their work in Iraq.

Kember was taken hostage in Baghdad last week, along with Tom Fox, 54, of Clear Brook, Va., and the Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32. The four members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams were seized by the previously unknown Swords of Righteousness Brigade.

The kidnappers have threatened to kill the hostages if Iraqi prisoners are not released from American and Iraqi jails by Thursday, Al-Jazeera reported.

At least two leading Sunni organizations, the Association of Muslim Scholars and the Iraqi Islamic Army, have called for their release, as has Christian Peacemaker Teams.

In Germany, meanwhile, Chancellor Angela Merkel and others pressed for the release of Susanne Osthoff, an aid worker kidnapped in Iraq on Nov. 25 along with her driver.

In an appeal published by the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, Merkel said the government "is doing everything it can to save the lives of Susanne Osthoff and her companion," an Iraqi driver.

Her kidnappers threatened to kill Osthoff, 43, unless Germany stops cooperating with the Iraqi government.

The magazines Der Spiegel and Focus reported over the weekend that their ultimatum expired early Friday. The government refused to comment on those reports.

The head of Germany's Central Council of Muslims also appealed for Osthoff's release.

The kidnapping "contravenes the values of Islam, of good sense and of every civilization," Nadeem Elyas wrote in Bild am Sonntag. The daily Tageszeitung quoted Elyas as saying he would consider offering to exchange himself for Osthoff.

Osthoff's sister and mother have appealed to the kidnappers to consider that their captive was a Muslim convert with a young daughter. Her brother, Robert Osthoff, echoed their plea on German television Sunday.

"She helps people and she has an Arab heart," he said.

Germany strongly opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and has refused to send troops, but it has been training Iraqi soldiers and police outside the country.