Hostage kidnapped after he went to train with militants
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THE Islamic State group threatened to kill two Japanese hostages yesterday unless they received US$200 million in 72 hours, demanding the ransom from Japan’s prime minister during his visit to the Middle East. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to save the men, saying: “Their lives are the top priority.”
Abe and other Japanese officials declined to discuss whether they’d pay the ransom for Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa. Their kidnap recalled the 2004 beheading of a Japanese backpacker in Iraq, carried out by the Islamic State group’s predecessor over Japan’s involvement in the US-led war there.
Yesterday’s video, identified as being made by the Islamic State group’s al-Furqan media arm and posted on militant websites associated with the extremist group, mirrored other hostage threats it has made.
Japanese officials said they would analyze the tape to verify its authenticity, though Abe offered no hesitation as he pledged to free the men while speaking to journalists in Jerusalem.
“It is unforgivable,” Abe said as he wrapped up a six-day visit to the Middle East. He added: “Extremism and Islam are completely different things.”
In the video, the two men appear in orange jumpsuits with a rocky hill in the background, a masked militant dressed in black standing between them. The scene resembles others featuring five hostages previously beheaded by the Islamic State group, which controls a third of Iraq and Syria.
“To the prime minister of Japan: Although you are more than 8,500 kilometers from the Islamic State, you willingly have volunteered to take part in this crusade,” says the knife-brandishing militant, who resembles and sounds like a British militant involved in other filmed beheadings.
“You have proudly donated US$100 million to kill our women and children, to destroy the homes of the Muslims ... and in an attempt to stop the expansion of the Islamic State, you have also donated another US$100 million to train the apostates.”
Abe said he would send Yasuhide Nakayama, a deputy foreign minister, to Jordan to seek the country’s support and to resolve the crisis. He also said the Israeli government, which Japan on Sunday had promised to cooperate with on counterterrorism, are sharing information to aid in the hostage crisis.
The Israeli prime minister’s office declined to comment.
Speaking in Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga also declined to say whether Japan would pay the ransom.
“If true, the act of threat in exchange of people’s lives is unforgivable and we feel strong indignation,” Suga told journalists.
“We will make our utmost effort to win their release as soon as possible.”
Yukawa, a 42-year-old private military company operator, was kidnapped in Syria in August after going there to train with militants, according to a blog he kept. Pictures on his Facebook page show him in Iraq and Syria in July. One video on his page showed him holding a Kalashnikov assault rifle with the caption: “Syria war in Aleppo 2014.”
Goto, 47, is a respected Japanese freelance journalist who went to report on Syria’s civil war last year.
“I’m in Syria for reporting,” Goto wrote in an e-mail in October. “I hope I can convey the atmosphere from where I am and share it.”
The Islamic State group has beheaded and shot dead hundreds of captives — mainly Syrian and Iraqi soldiers — during its sweep across the two countries, and has celebrated its mass killings in graphic videos. The group also beheaded American hostages James Foley and Peter Kassig, Israeli-American Steven Sotloff, and British captives David Haines and Alan Henning.
The group still holds British photojournalist John Cantlie, who has appeared in other extremist propaganda videos, and a 26-year-old American woman captured last year in Syria while working for aid groups.
Japan’s military has been constrained by the country’s commitment to pacifism in the constitution drafted after World War II. Abe is seeking to raise Japan’s military capabilities and expand its reach, but he has ruled out sending troops overseas. It remains unclear whether Japan would ask the United States, which has launched previous operations to free hostages in Syria, to attempt a rescue.
Yesterday’s video marks the first time an Islamic State group message has publicly demanded cash. The extremists requested US$132.5 million from Foley’s parents and political concessions from Washington, though neither granted them during months of negotiations before his killing, US authorities say.
The Islamic State group has suffered recent losses in airstrikes by a US-led coalition, and with global oil prices being down, their revenue from selling stolen oil likely has dropped as well. The extremists have also made money from extortion, illegal businesses and other gangland-style activity.
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