Australia: No hostage negotiations
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-05-02 14:57

The Australian government says it will not negotiate with a group that has taken an Australian citizen hostage in Iraq.

A videotape shows a man who identifies himself as Douglas Wood.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said on Monday morning this was a moment he had dreaded, but there would be no change in his government's stance.

The apparent hostage, who identified himself on a videotape as Douglas Wood, 63, was shown seated between two people wearing masks and armed with weapons.

He appealed for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq and said he did not want to die.

"Everybody knows the position of the Australian government in relation to hostage demands," Howard told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio on Monday.

"We can't alter that position and we won't alter that position," he said.

"We can't have the foreign policy of this country dictated by terrorists."

In a statement released Monday Wood's brother, Malcolm Wood, asked the government to do everything it could to help his brother.

"As brothers of Douglas Wood we are distressed and extremely concerned about his situation. Douglas is an engineer working in Iraq on construction projects.

"We trust that our government and its officials, liaising with other governments and agencies as appropriate, will do all that is reasonably in their power to confirm his situation and develop a response."

The video showed a sign for the Shura Council of the Mujahedeen of Iraq, the name of the group claiming responsibility for the kidnapping.

On the videotape, Wood said he was an Australian citizen and a resident of California who has been working in Iraq for more than a year.

"Please help me. I don't want to die," Wood says.

Howard said the Department of Foreign Affairs has contacted Wood's relatives in Australia.

A spokesman for the department told CNN that an emergency task force had already met in Canberra, the Australian capital, to coordinate the government's response.

He said Australia was working closely with the United States, Britain and the Iraqi transitional government on the matter.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Australian radio that the government was sending "very experienced people" to Iraq and was working very closely with its allies.

"We'll be deploying resources (so) that we can to try to get him out," he said.

Under the Howard government, Australia has been a strong supporter of U.S. President George W. Bush and has contributed forces to the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It sent 2,000 troops, along with ships and aircraft, to take part in the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003, and later reduced the number to about 950 after the ouster of Saddam Hussein.

Howard's decision to take part in the war was not popular, but voters returned his center-right coalition to power in October and rejected an opposition candidate who had promised to withdraw if elected.

In February, Howard announced that about 450 Australian soldiers would be sent to the south of the country to help protect Japanese engineers based there and to assist in training Iraqi soldiers.

Those forces arrived last month. There have been no Australian forces killed so far in Iraq, though several have been injured.

Australian Defence Minister Robert Hill held talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari in Baghdad on Sunday.

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