Posted on: Saturday, July 24, 2004

No easy answers for Iraq hostages

By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Staff Writer

What would you do?

Leaders of countries with troops in Iraq and corporations doing business there increasingly face life-or-death decisions as terrorists take hostages and demand withdrawal of all personnel in exchange for the captives' lives. In some cases, decapitation has been the hostages' fate.

"It's an awful situation to be in," said Mike Carroll, an artist and gallery owner from Lana'i. "Yes, there are guys losing their heads. But you just can't give in. It will only lead to more hostages. If I were taken hostage, I would know my head would be going."

But Joann Han Caplett, a Korean-language interpreter from O'ahu, said she's not so sure what she'd do. "What if it happened to your family?" she said.

Still, you have to consider the consequences of giving in to terrorists, she said, and sometimes sacrifices must be made. Caplett said she would hope leaders would make every effort to negotiate a solution and avoid the worst.

The deepening hostage problem across Iraq this week saw the kidnapping of seven truck drivers from India, Kenya and Egypt, plus an Egyptian diplomat. The captors are threatening to behead them if their home countries and employers do not order all their citizens out of Iraq. The Kenyan government on Thursday ordered its citizens to leave Iraq, a day after Saudi Arabian officials announced they had found the head of hostage Paul Marshall Johnson Jr., an American helicopter engineer, during a raid on a Riyadh home.

Les Sponsel, a University of Hawai'i anthropology professor who has taught the subject of terrorism, war and its impact, said the hostage-taking is eroding public support for the war. "It's a quagmire. It's devastating, desperate, depressing," Sponsel said.

He said terrorists have found an easy way to gain power, and civilian hostages are an easy target. Threatening to behead a hostage is especially horrendous to Americans, he said, attracting tremendous media coverage.

"The key is a lot of publicity," he said. "It's a way for a relatively powerless people to fight back in the face of a great power."

Keeley Belva, an administrative assistant from Diamond Head, said she hadn't let the beheadings get her down about the war. While she cringes every time she reads the news from Iraq, war isn't a walk in the park, she said, and Americans shouldn't be surprised by what's happening.

"You have to carry on with your day-to-day life," she said.

The Philippines has been the target of harsh criticism after it pulled out of Iraq to save a Filipino hostage. Criticism has been especially vocal from the United States and other coalition countries, including South Korea, Japan, Poland and Bulgaria, all of which rejected similar extortion attempts.

Not everyone here would join the criticism. The Rev. Jaeman Lim of Ala Lani United Methodist Church in Kahului said family ties are highly valued in Filipino culture, and it would have been difficult for leaders to answer to the public if they stood by and let one of their compatriots die.

Bion Griffin, interim associate dean of social sciences at UH-Manoa, who lived in the Philippines and taught Filipino culture, agreed, saying Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo did "the absolute right thing" in pulling out 51 troops a month ahead of schedule.

A majority of Filipinos were urging their government to do whatever it took to save the life of Angelo de la Cruz. In fact, the father of eight is considered a national hero, Griffin said, representating a significant segment of the population: the overseas worker who sends his wages back home.

If Arroyo had not brought him home, she risked political catastrophe, Griffin said. "This was a drama made in heaven for the Filipino psyche."

As for other countries, Griffin said it's bad policy generally to cave in to terrorist demands, as success breeds more terrorism.

However, Glenn D. Paige, founder and president of the the Honolulu-based Center for Global Nonviolence, noted that last month's beheading of an American engineer had not brought an end to beheadings.

"For the Filipinos to commit themselves to saving one life, that's fantastic," he said.

Virgilio Agcolicol of Kahului, Maui, a Vietnam veteran who was born in the Philippines, said Arroyo did not do the right thing. She should have honored the commitment to the United States, said the bank officer and former president of the United Filipino Council of Hawai'i.

The Rev. Lim believes influences other than the U.S. military should play a role in Iraq, such as the U.N. or religious organizations. Lim, who served three years with the Korean military in the 1980s, said more mediation and discussions are needed between the factions in Iraq.

Christie Wilson contributed to this report. Reach Timothy Hurley at thurley@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880.