Friends and family of two Canadians being held hostage in Iraq are heartened by new video that shows they are still alive.
"Our prayers have been answered," said Rebecca Johnson of Christian Peacemakers Teams at a Toronto news conference on Saturday.
Al-Jazeera broadcast video of Jim Loney and Harmeet Singh on Saturday. Militants are holding them hostage with Briton Norman Kember, 74, and American Tom Fox, 54.
All four were abducted at gunpoint in Baghdad on Nov. 26. The latest video is dated Jan. 21.
The Iraqi captors of four abducted Western aid workers, including two Canadians, are again threatening to kill them unless all Iraqi prisoners are released from Iraqi and U.S. prisons.
The 55-second tape (al-Jazeera released 19 seconds to Western networks) shows the four hostages standing against a wall.
The video then cuts away to another shot in which they were seated and talking but their voices cannot be heard.
Al-Jazeera says the group issued a statement with the tape saying it was the "last chance" for authorities to "release all Iraqi prisoners in return of freeing the hostages otherwise their fate will be death." No deadline was set.
The network's editor Saad al-Dosari declined to say how the station obtained the tape.
Their kidnappers, a group calling themselves the Swords of Righteousness, have accused the men of spying for U.S.-led forces and threatened to kill them if Iraqis were not released from U.S. and Iraqi prisons by Dec. 10.
Though the deadline has long expired, there has been no word on the fate of the hostages until now.
The Loney family said they were relieved to see James alive.
"It's a good and bad scenario, we know that he's alive and the others are alive as well, and we take great solace in that fact," Matt Loney told The Canadian Press.
"But the fact remains that this is still a delicate situation."
David Pankratz who worked in Iraq for six months delivering food, medicine and water, believes the video is not a last chance threat but an attempt by the kidnappers to save face.
"They're trying to find a way to do something that will allow them to release the hostages without everyone in Iraq saying 'those idiots they lost'," Pankratz said.
CPT reacts
The hostages were in Iraq working for the Christian Peacemakers Teams (CPT), which has been in the country since October 2002, before the invasion by the U.S.-led coalition.
The CPT added in a statement that it continues to call for justice and human rights for all Iraqi detainees.
"We continue to believe that what has happened to our teammates is the result of the actions of the U.S. and U.K. governments in their illegal attack on Iraq and the continuing occupation and oppression of its people," Johnson said.
The group plans a march on the U.S. consulate in Toronto on Sunday.
The organization does not advocate the use of force to save its members' lives should some person or group kidnap or take them hostage.
The primary focus of the team for eighteen months following the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 was documenting detainee abuses.
The current focus of the team has expanded to include efforts to end occupation of the country and to foster non-violent alternatives for a free and independent Iraq.
Meanwhile, government spokesman Dan McTeague said Saturday that working to free the hostages remains a priority.
"All the resources of the government of Canada have been co-ordinated to communicate and listen to and receive any info that would help us see the safe release of these hostages," he said.
"We will continue to emphasize ... to the hostage takers that these are individuals that went there out of profound respect for the Iraqi people and Islam."
A written statement from prime minister-designate Stephen Harper said he sees the video as "a hopeful sign."
The statement continues on to say that Harper looks forward "to a quick and peaceful resolution of the hostage taking and a safe return of the four individuals to their families and loved ones."
Two German engineers abducted earlier this week in northern Iraq appealed to the German government to work for their release in a videotape broadcast Al-Jazeera.
The tape showed the two engineers, identified by relatives as Thomas Nitzschke and Rene Braeunlich, seated on the floor with at least four armed men standing behind them.
A handwritten black banner was shown on the tape reading:
"Supporters of Tawhid and Sunnah Brigades."
That is a previously unknown group. Tawhid is the Arabic word for monotheism and Sunnah refers to the teachings of the prophet Muhammad.
Among the hostages in Iraq still unaccounted for is American reporter Jill Carroll, 28, who was abducted Jan. 7 in Baghdad.
Her captors have demanded the release of all Iraqi women in custody. However, the U.S. military said this week's release of five Iraqi women was not in response to the ultimatum.
Other developments
- A Sunni Arab leader, Khalaf al-Ilyan, spoke out on Saturday against police crackdowns on Sunni neighbourhoods in Baghdad and demanded government protection from more raids.
- At least eight people were killed Saturday in attacks across the country.
- Britain hopes to reduce its troops in Iraq this year when the government is secure, said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw at the World Economic Forum.
With a report from CTV's Scott Laurie
