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Japan Will Not Leave Iraq

Japan has announced it will not leave Iraq after the decapitated body of a Japanese tourist taken hostage in Baghdad last week was found on Saturday in central Baghdad.

Shosei Koda, 24, was kidnapped last week by a group linked to Abu Mu’s’ab A-Zarqawi. In a video from October 26, 2004 the captors threatened to behead him within 48 hours if Japan did not withdraw its troops from Iraq. Japan has had 600 troops deployed in the war-torn country since January.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said he would not yield to terrorist demands and that his forces would remain in Iraq alongside his allies, the Americans.

Koda was the sixth Japanese national taken hostage by terrorists who demanded Japan withdraws its troops. Five Japanese journalists and aid workers were taken hostage in April and later freed. Two Japanese journalists were killed in May.

Amnesty International says it condemns the use of hostages as bargaining chips in Iraq and is urging what it calls armed groups to respect minimum standards of international humanitarian law, justice and humanity.
A Polish national who is a resident of Iraq is also being held in Baghdad after she was kidnapped on October 27. Her captors are calling on the Polish government to withdraw its troops, otherwise they say they will kill her.

Dozens of foreigners of varying nationalities have been kidnapped in Iraq over the past few months. Many of them are civilians who were abducted and held hostage while the captors use them as pawns to exert pressure on their respective governments or employers to leave Iraq.

In many cases hostages have been killed, often applying the brutal method of beheading.