Freed hostages facing rescue bill

The Japanese hostages released in Iraq last week will be charged for plane tickets and other expenses related to their safe return, the Foreign Ministry said today.

The ministry intends to charge the five civilians – who were released unharmed by their captors last week – for the cost of their plane fares back to Japan and other expenses related to their captivity “as appropriate,” a ministry official said. Three have returned already, and the two others were expected to arrive in Japan tomorrow.

The government has not calculated how much it will bill them as its investigation into their abductions isn’t complete, the official said.

Having victims pay for their return flights adheres to ministry procedures for helping citizens who encounter trouble overseas, she added.

While the kidnapping horrified Japan and triggered an outpouring of concern for the victims, the hostages have run into criticism that they recklessly imperilled themselves and government policy by going to Iraq without properly assessing the dangers.

Japan’s top government spokesman today repeated warnings that civilians should stay out of Iraq.

“I think the Japanese people have learned well from this incident what they need to be careful about,” Yasuo Fukuda said at a news conference.

Three of the five – Noriaki Imai, 18, and Nahoko Takato, 34, and photojournalist Soichiro Koriyama, 32 – arrived in Japan on Sunday on a commercial flight from the United Arab Emirates.

Gunmen kidnapped the two aid workers and one photojournalist near Fallujah and threatened to burn them alive unless Tokyo withdrew its troops from Iraq.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi refused, saying he wouldn’t submit to terrorist demands, but the insurgents freed the three a week later after an appeal by Sunni clerics.

The stand-off, which led hundreds of protesters to demonstrate daily with pleas for Tokyo to pull its troops out, put Koizumi through his biggest test since his election three years ago.

Two more Japanese civilians, kidnapped by gunmen near Baghdad days after the first group was seized, were released on Saturday. Freelance journalist Jumpei Yasuda and aid worker Nobutaka Watanabe have since travelled to Jordan.

Yasuda said he believed his kidnappers were farmers by day and guerillas by night.