Sudan advises nationals not to work with US security firms in Iraq

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Oct 31, 2004 (AP) — Sudan’s Foreign Ministry advised its citizens Sunday not to work with U.S. security companies in Iraq following the kidnapping by Iraqi militants of a Sudanese interpreter employed by an American contractor.

A video image aired by Arabic satellite channel Al Arabiya October 30, 2004 shows two masked men pointing rifles at a Sudanese translator, named as Noureddin Zakaria, taken hostage in the Iraqi rebel town of Ramadi by an Iraqi resistance group. (Al Arabiya via Reuters).

Noureddin Zakaria, who worked with San Diego-based Titan Corp., appeared Saturday in a video tape aired on an Arabic TV station saying he had been kidnapped during a military operation in the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, 70 miles (113 kilometers) west of Baghdad.

“I hope and call on the company to stop its operations in Iraq to guarantee my release,” the Sudanese man said, shown in front of a banner emblazoned with the name of the group that abducted him, The National Islamic Resistance, the 1920 Revolution Brigades.

The 1920 Revolution refers to the uprising against British military occupation, which historians consider the birth of Iraqi nationalism.

The Sudanese Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it was forming a committee “to follow up ensuing developments” regarding Zakaria’s capture. It was unclear if Sudanese authorities were going to try to contact Iraqi authorities or Islamic leaders to secure his release.

“We have some 4,000 Sudanese nationals living in Iraq and it has become evident for us that this person (Zakaria) is not among them,” the statement said. “But we will continue our search until we find who he is and his relationship with the American company.”

“But in the meantime, all our embassies should advise Sudanese nationals abroad to refrain from working with American security companies” in Iraq, the statement added.

The statement also claimed that Titan Corp., the largest provider of translators to the U.S. government, has refused to cooperate with the Sudanese Embassy in Baghdad regarding Zakaria.

Insurgents in Iraq have kidnapped more than 160 foreigners in their campaign to drive out coalition forces and hamper reconstruction. At least 34 — including three Americans, a Briton and a Japanese man — have been killed.