Chinese officials are seeking to contact mediators to secure the release of seven Chinese citizens who have become the latest foreigners to be kidnapped in Iraq, a Chinese diplomat said.
”We are trying to contact Iraqi authorities for assistance, but we are also trying to contact mediators,” said Xu Jiang, second secretary at the Chinese embassy in Baghdad.
Jiang said ”we do not know who exactly they are, who kidnapped them and what was the motive behind that. We are still looking into it.
”We only have a list of their names in English, we don’t really know who they are,” he said.
”They had left Jordan on April 10 and entered Iraq on April 11, in the usual overnight travel” by land along the main highway to Baghdad, which passes the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
Earlier on Monday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed that seven Chinese citizens had been kidnapped in Iraq, pledging that no efforts would be spared to rescue them.
The ministry said the hostages are from the eastern province of Fujian, which has a long tradition of exporting labour overseas.
A list of names provided by the diplomat to China’s official Xinhua news agency said the oldest is 49 and the youngest 18.
China, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, resolutely opposed last year’s United States-led invasion of Iraq and has refused to send troops to help police the occupation. — Sapa-AFP