TOKYO — An Islamic scholar was delegated to negotiate with the Islamic State militant group during the recent hostage crisis involving two Japanese men, The Japan News has learned.
The hostage crisis began a month ago, when the militants released a video threatening to kill freelance journalist Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa.
Sheikh Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, an ultraconservative Islamic scholar in Jordan, was asked by the Jordanian government to negotiate with the Islamic State after a video in which Goto was seen holding a photo of what seemed to be Yukawa's body appeared online on Jan. 24, sources including a Maqdisi aide and people involved with the Jordanian government revealed Wednesday.
"The Japanese [Goto] is not a soldier. You shouldn't kill him," Maqdisi told ISIL, according to the sources.
Maqdisi is believed to have been a mentor of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, ISIL's predecessor organization. Zarqawi was killed by an airstrike in 2006.
At the same time, however, Jordanian government officials told their Japanese counterparts that they believed negotiations would be difficult, according to sources involved with the Jordanian government. A Jordanian government official said even if they freed the death-row inmate whose release the Islamic State was demanding, there was no guarantee the militants would free Goto, the sources said.
Islamic State later released videos in which it claimed it had murdered Goto and Yukawa. Radical groups are boosting their activities in sympathy with ISIL in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and other areas.
An official of the Foreign Ministry's Consular Affairs Bureau advised Goto, who had indicated his plan to visit Syria, in late September last year to refrain from visiting Syria, telling him over the telephone: "We advise you to refrain from traveling [to Syria] in consideration of your safety."
The ministry repeated its advice again in early October. In the middle of that month, the ministry official tried to persuade him to refrain from the Syria visit over a meal. "All right, all right," Goto was quoted by the official as saying.
Goto reportedly said so with a smile, but did not change his plan to enter Syria.
An email message written in English, saying Goto had been detained, was received by his wife on Dec. 2. Informed of this the following day, the Foreign Ministry contacted Goto's local guide four times to collect information and came to strongly believe that he had entered an area under the control of the Islamic State. But in view of the fact that there are many groups in Syria who try to obtain ransom money through kidnapping, it could not be determined that Goto was detained by the militant group.
"The email message addressed to his wife warned never to reveal it to others, so the government didn't enter into negotiations," said a high-ranking government official while recalling the hostage crisis. The government also took the stance of not holding direct talks with any terrorist group.
In preparation for his possible involvement in a kidnapping case, Goto took out a ransom insurance policy issued by a British insurance firm. Therefore, his wife asked a crisis management consultant company in Britain to negotiate with the abduction group via email.
Views have emerged within the government that it should have been involved in negotiations with the kidnapping group from the very beginning.
On Jan. 20, Islamic State posted video of Yukawa and Goto online and demanded the Japanese government pay a ransom of $200 million. It threatened to kill the two men if payment was not made within 72 hours.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was in Israel on a tour of the Middle East at the time, and hurriedly summoned Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroshige Seko, Vice Foreign Minister Yasuhide Nakayama and other high-ranking Foreign Ministry officials to the hotel suite where he was staying.
"This is a really difficult situation," Abe was quoted as saying when Seko showed him the video of Goto and Yukawa on a tablet computer.
The officials at the emergency meeting decided not to comply with the demand for ransom and not to negotiate directly with the terrorists. They also decided to send Nakayama to a task force headquarters in Amman.
Abe's executive secretary and other government officials worked out the gist of a statement to be made by Abe during a news conference after the meeting, saying basically that Japan would not give in to terrorism and calling for the release of the hostages. However, Abe directed them to change the order of the sentences so as to give priority to preserving human life and securing the release of the hostages, and then refer to Japan's humanitarian assistance to refugees.
"This is the national feeling of Japan," Abe said as he sought the understanding of the executive secretary and government officials.
Abe then talked to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, who was in Japan, by cellphone, urging him to spread overseas the information that Japan's provision of $200 million in assistance was intended solely for humanitarian assistance.
Via the Jordanian government and others, Tokyo sought cooperation from such parties as religious leaders, Jordanian terrorists who had joined the militant group and leading members of an influential tribe in western Iraq's Anbar Province.
Tokyo received many offers of cooperation in resolving the hostage crisis, with one saying it would be possible to rescue the men if a certain amount of money was paid. The government referred all offers to the Jordanian government to verify them, but ultimately no information was provided that could secure the release of hostages.
Some opposition parties criticized Abe for touring the Middle East while the two Japanese were being held hostage and for vowing in a speech to provide about $200 million in assistance for the Mideast countries that have been fighting the ISIL.
A senior government official rejected such criticism, saying that Abe's commitment to assistance came in response to requests from Europe and the Middle East.
"[Abe] didn't have the option of changing Japan's diplomatic policy toward the Middle East just because there was a possibility that Japanese nationals were being detained by ISIL," the official said.
(c) 2015, The Yomiuri Shimbun.
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