IRAQ today Freed Archbishop Says Kidnappers Didn’t Realize Who He Was VATICAN CITY/AP ACatholic archbishop kidnapped in Iraq was released the next day without payment of ransom, the Vatican said. The prelate said his kidnappers didn’t realize who he was when they abducted him on January 17 in the northern city of Mosul. Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa was back resting in his home shortly after his 19-hour-long kidnapping ended and told Vatican Radio he had not been mistreated. ``I suspected that they kidnapped me thinking I was another person,’’ Casmoussa told reporters in Mosul. ``They were kind with me and told me that I will be released very soon.’’ It was not clear if Casmoussa was wearing clerical garb when he was captured just after he came out of the home of a parishioner that Monday evening in Mosul. Casmoussa was quoted as telling the Italian news agency ANSA that he thought Pope John Paul II’s strong appeal on his behalf was a ``decisive factor’’ in his release. The Vatican had called the abduction a ``despicable terrorist act’’ and demanded that the kidnappers free him immediately. ``I am truly, and, like a son, grateful to the pope, by whom I felt strongly supported in this very new situation for me,’’ Casmoussa was quoted as telling ANSA. ``The kidnappers themselves told me this morning about his appeal, which I maintain was a decisive factor in my liberation.’’ The pontiff, who had prayed for the bishop’s release, was informed immediately of the good news, said papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls. ``He changed his prayer to one of thanks,’’ he said. The kidnappers initially demanded a $200,000 ransom but then released the bishop without any payment, the Vatican said. Casmoussa, a 66-year-old Iraqi, is from the Syrian Catholic Church, one of the branches of the Roman Catholic Church. A priest in Iraq said on condition of anonymity that the archbishop was walking in front of the Al-Bishara church in Mosul’s eastern neighborhood of Muhandeseen when gunmen “I am truly, and like a son, grateful to the pope.” — ARCHBISHOP CASMOUSSA forced him into a car and drove away. Mosul, in Iraq’s north, has been a hotspot for the violent insurgency in recent months. ``I think that my kidnapping was a coincidence,’’ the archbishop told Vatican Radio. ``It doesn’t seem to me that they wanted to strike at the Church per se.’’ Navarro-Valls said the Vatican didn’t view the kidnapping as an anti- Christian act but part of the general climate of violence in Iraq. He said the archbishop was well-loved in the community . Basile Georges Casmoussa, 66, the Archbishop of the Syrian Catholic Church, sits in a chair after he arrived back to the church in Mosul, some 360 kilometers, (225 miles) north of Baghdad, on Jan. 18. PHOTO BY AP 6335 ORCHARD LAKE RD • WEST BLOOMFIELD 248-626-1999 MON.- SAT.: 10 - 5:30 PM SEE US AT THE NEWLY DESIGNED ORCHARD MALL THREE WEEKS ONLY All Special Orders ... 40% OFF 70% OFF Floor Samples ... 50% TO <strong>FEBRUARY</strong> SALE Interior Design Fee NO CHARGE Furniture Layouts NO CHARGE Detailed Drawings NO CHARGE 32 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>FEBRUARY</strong> <strong>2005</strong>
<strong>FEBRUARY</strong> <strong>2005</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 33