Body of Asian man found in Iraq

The Japanese government convened an emergency session today following a media report that a body believed to be Asian was discovered in Iraq. It was not known whether the body belonged to a Japanese man held hostage by militants who threatened to behead him.

Kyodo News agency, citing China News Service and unidentified Russian media, said the unidentified body was found in Tikrit, the hometown of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The CNS report said the body was found with bullet wounds to the head and chest, Kyodo said.

High-ranking officials gathered at Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s office immediately following the report.

“We haven’t confirmed anything yet,” Koizumi told reporters, refusing to detail the government’s actions on the case. “We are doing all we can.”

Islamic militants holding Shosei Koda had threatened on Tuesday to kill him within 48 hours unless Japan withdrew its troops from Iraq.

News of the body’s discovery came just as Koda’s mother, Setsuko Koda, pleaded for his safe release even as the 48-hour deadline for his beheading passed early today.

“I told myself that he would come home alive, that he was born to help the world. I believe he will come home alive,” Mrs. Koda, 50, told reporters in Tokyo.

Asked if she wanted the government to pull Japanese troops out to try and save her son, she answered: “We are ordinary civilians. We are not in a position to demand one thing or another from the government.”

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hatsuhisa Takashima said at a morning news conference that no new information had been received overnight but that the government was pursuing its efforts to free Koda.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II told Tanigawa that his country was in contact with unspecified Iraqis to win Koda’s freedom, according to the country’s official Petra news agency.

The kingdom, which borders Iraq, has mediated with Iraqi clergymen and tribal chiefs in the past to win the release of Jordanians abducted in Iraq.

Japan contacted 25 countries for help in securing Koda’s freedom, while Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura and Koda’s family appeared on Arabic television to appeal to the captors.