Iraqi 'mediator' says hostages' employer, embassies not doing enough

[Barrett808]

BAGHDAD (AFP) - An Iraqi tribal chief who claims to be negotiating for the release of a group of kidnapped foreign truck drivers on criticized their Kuwaiti employer and embassies for not doing enough to win their freedom.

"The kidnappers responded positively to my appeal to extend the ultimatum, but neither the company nor the embassies concerned have made any move so far," Sheikh Hisham al-Dulaimi told AFP.

"If the Kuwaiti company is worried about the humanitarian aspect to this matter -- and I think it is -- it should come forward and negotiate," he said.

Dulaimi said he feared for the lives of the three Indians, three Kenyans and one Egyptian, kidnapped last Wednesday.

"I am the sole authorized mediator," claimed the Sunni Muslim, who described himself as chairman of a council of tribal chiefs and the main force behind a group calling itself the Association of Victims of American Occupation Prisons.

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