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| Wednesday, 1 December 2004 |
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by Manjula Fernando
The family of Sri Lankan hostage Dinesh Rajaratnam including his three children who has been abducted by suspected Iraqi militants will send a televised appeal to his abductors pleading for the safe return of their loved one. Rajaratnam had gone missing since October 28 and is believed to be held by a Iraqi militant group named Islamic Army fighting the Alliance forces. With no news of Dinesh, a heavy vehicle driver working in Iraq a month after his abduction, the Foreign Ministry has made arrangements to send a video clipping containing the appeal by his family to be telecast in Iraq. "The Al-Arabiya TV network has been contacted by our mission in Dubai to telecast this recorded appeal," Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Himali Arunatilleke said. "We got in touch with his family on Monday and the recording will take place today or tomorrow," she said. This will be the second videotaped appeal from Sri Lanka to the abductors of Dinesh. Earlier Al-Jazeera telecast a video clipping of the Deputy Foreign Minister appealing on behalf of the family to release the Sri Lankan. The spokesperson said they have also consulted several countries which maintain 'close networks' in Iraq to get in touch with the militant group. "I cannot reveal their identities as they prefer to remain anonymous," she said. The militant group responsible for Dinesh's abduction, Al Sural Sunnah, communicated their deed through a video clipping released to Al-Jazeera soon after the abduction. He was kidnapped on October 28 along with a colleague, a Bangladeshi, while they were driving towards a US military base in an undisclosed location in Iraq. The militant group has not made any contact thereafter or set conditions for his release. The Sri Lankan Government has been making efforts through religious leaders and other channels to contact the militant group since the kidnapping without success. |
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