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Japan Says Body Found Not Iraq Hostage

Posted on: Saturday, 30 October 2004, 06:00 CDT

TOKYO - The Japanese government is "almost certain" a body earlier believed to belong to a Japanese hostage held in Iraq is not that of the captive, officials said Saturday.

The government had said a body found in central Iraq resembled that of hostage Shosei Koda, 24, and that it was being sent to medical experts for identification.

A Japanese doctor and officials in Kuwait examined it but found the body's characteristics differed from Koda's, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda.

"It is almost certain the body is not Mr. Koda," Hosoda said. "We are now collecting more information and turning our full efforts toward rescuing Mr. Koda," Hosoda said.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hatsuhisa Takashima told a news conference that the discrepancies included: the body was dressed in Middle Eastern clothing; the face, though mutilated, had traces of a beard; and the person seemed to be about 50 years old, was overweight, and had a different dental structure.

The U.S. military had told Tokyo earlier that a body found halfway between the Iraqi cities of Balad and Tikrit resembled Koda.

The discovery came a day after a deadline set by militants who threatened to behead Koda unless Japan withdrew its forces from Iraq - a demand Japan rejected.

Amid the confusion, Koizumi warned officials not to jump to conclusions.

"I have cautioned that we not be swayed by information that has not been confirmed with certainty," he said.

Preparing for the worst, the government had notified Koda's family a body had been found. The government had earlier begun asking for Koda's fingerprints and other medical records to assist the identification.

In a video posted on a militant Web site Tuesday, an al-Qaida-linked group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi vowed to behead Koda within 48 hours unless Japan withdrew its troops from Iraq. Koizumi quickly rejected that demand, saying he would not give in to terrorists.

"I still believe my son is alive," Kyodo News service quoted Koda's mother, Setsuko, earlier as saying. The family had appealed on Arabic TV and through international media throughout the week to the captors, saying their son had no political intentions in Iraq and was simply curious.

The captors have not come forward with a statement since Tuesday.

Koda, who left Japan in January for a yearlong trip starting in New Zealand, had told people he met traveling that he wanted to go to Iraq to see the country.

The crisis comes as support ratings for Koizumi's government have been sliding. Many Japanese oppose his dispatch of about 500 ground troops to southern Iraq, saying the mission is too dangerous and violates Japan's pacifist constitution.

A poll by the Asahi newspaper taken before Koda's kidnapping and published Tuesday showed 63 percent of voters want the military to return by the end of the year.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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