An Egyptian truck driver has been taken hostage in Iraq. Rasha Saad reports on Egyptian efforts to set him free When Egyptian truck driver Victor Tawfiq Guirgis left Egypt for Kuwait, his primary goal was to help make ends meet financially back at home. Little did he know that he would soon be taken hostage in Iraq. Last Wednesday, satellite TV channel Al-Arabiya aired footage of an unknown Iraqi group threatening to kill 45-year old Guirgis, along with a Turkish driver named Turk Bulent Yanik. The footage showed Guirgis and Yanik seated on the floor of a room holding up their passports. Behind them were five masked men carrying rocket-propelled grenade launchers and automatic weapons. There appeared to be several reasons why the two men were abducted. On the videotape, the kidnappers accused them of collaborating with US occupation forces in Iraq by transporting their weapons and supplies. Expanding the argument into the realm of geopolitics, the kidnappers also threatened to kill Guirgis and Yanik if their countries did not condemn the American-led occupation. "Death will be the fate of all those whose governments do not condemn American actions in Iraq," one of the masked kidnappers said. Ambassador Farouk Mabrouk, head of the Egyptian interest section in Baghdad, told Middle East News Agency on Sunday that he has had intensive contacts with a number of Iraqi officials and NGOs to secure Guirgis's release. Earlier, Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said the Iraqi Foreign Ministry had been contacted, as had a number of figures who might be able to help. "What matters to Egypt is to protect the life of this citizen, and work to get him out of this ordeal safely," Maher said. Guirgis left Egypt for Kuwait seven months ago to look for work as a means of supporting his mother, wife and four children. His first job, obtained just last week, was to drive a truck, filled with foodstuffs, to the US occupation forces in Iraq. According to press reports, when he phoned his wife, Amal Gadel-Rub, with news of his first assignment, she urged him not to go to Iraq because of the "war between the Iraqis and the United States". His answer, according to Gadel-Rub, was along the lines of "I have nothing to do with the war and the fighting. I am an employee. I will take the cargo and return to Kuwait to send you money." Guirgis's family resides in a small house in the village of Shousha just outside Qena, 465 kilometres south of Cairo. The family is LE50,000 in debt, half of which represents the cost of Guirgis's travel expenses and visa to Kuwait. Guirgis and Yanik's ordeal is just the latest in a wave of kidnappings of foreigners taking place in Iraq. According to the coalition, some 40 people from 12 different nationalities have been taken hostage since the beginning of April. While some have been killed, and others have been released, many remain captive.
