Japan's Deputy Foreign Minister Yasuhide Nakayama continued his mission in Jordan on Sunday in an attempt to save Kenji Goto, the second Japanese hostage held by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants.
Nakayama's convoy was seen leaving the Japanese Embassy in the Jordanian capital, Amman, on Sunday morning, and returning an hour later.
ISIS posted a video online on Saturday purportedly showing that one of the two Japanese hostages being held by the group had been killed. The message claimed that Japanese hostage Haruna Yukawa had been killed and demanded a prisoner exchange for Goto.
Yukawa, 42, was seized by militants in August, after going to Syria in what he described as a plan to launch a security company. Goto, 47, a veteran war correspondent, went into Syria in late October seeking to secure Yukawa's release, according to friends and business associates.
A sombre Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appeared on Japanese public broadcaster NHK early Sunday demanding the militants release Goto unharmed.
ISIS militants are now reportedly demanding the release of a prisoner held in Jordan in exchange for their hostage, Japanese journalist Kenji Goto. (Masaya Kurosaki/Kyodo News/Associated Press)
Abe said that the latest video was likely authentic, although he added that the government was still reviewing it. He offered condolences to the family and friends of Haruna Yukawa, a 42-year-old adventurer taken hostage in Syria last year.
Abe declined to comment on the message in the video, which demanded a prisoner exchange for Goto. He said only that the government was still working on the situation, and reiterated that Japan condemns terrorism.
"I am left speechless," he said. "We strongly and totally criticize such acts."
Yukawa's father, Shoichi, told reporters he hoped "deep in his heart" that the news of his son's killing was not true.
"If I am ever reunited with him, I just want to give him a big hug," he said.
Japanese Deputy Foreign minister Yasuhide Nakayama is in Amman, Jordan to continue efforts to secure the release of journalist Kenji Goto. (Raad Adayleh/Associated Press)
U.S. President Barack Obama condemned what he called "the brutal murder" of Yukawa and later Sunday offered condolences to Abe after arriving in India. Obama's statement didn't say how the U.S. knew Yukawa was dead.
He said that the United States will stand "shoulder to shoulder" with Japan, and also called for the immediate release of the second hostage.
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar