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| Sunday, 8 May 2005 |
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Australia rejects latest ultimatum for hostage, SYDNEY, Saturday (AFP) Australia said Saturday it was upset by the release of a new video showing an Australian contractor held hostage in Iraq, but reaffirmed it would not bow to a 72-hour deadline given by the insurgents for Canberra to withdraw its troops from the country. A militant group holding engineer Douglas Wood gave the 72-hour ultimatum in a video broadcast by the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television on Friday. "The group calling itself the Shura Council of the Mujahedeen of Iraq, which is holding Australian hostage Douglas Wood, gave Australian authorities 72 hours to start withdrawing their forces from Iraq," Al-Jazeera said. The network did not say what the group would do if its ultimatum was not met but in an earlier video released on Sunday Wood said his captors would kill him if Australia did not withdraw its troops from Iraq. Canberra has about 550 soldiers stationed in Iraq with another 350 soon to be deployed. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer on Saturday that the video was upsetting but he reiterated Australia's insistence that it would not give in to hostage-takers' demands. "If you give in to demands, more people will be taken in time," he told Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio. "They asked for that initially - for us to withdraw, they want to
generate major national controversy and debate," he said. |
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