Condemnations trail IS beheading of Japanese hostage

The Islamic State group said Sunday it executed one of
two Japanese hostages it has been holding, in an
apparent beheading branded "outrageous and
unforgivable" by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The claim comes a day after the release of a video
announcing the murder of security contractor Haruna
Yukawa by the jihadist group which has beheaded five
Western hostages since August last year.
It sought to raise the pressure on Japan by saying the
fate of the other captive, freelance journalist Kenji Goto,
depended on the release of an Iraqi would-be female
bomber who is on death row in Jordan.
"The Islamic State has carried out its threat… it has
executed Japanese hostage Haruna Yukawa after the
expiry of the deadline given," the jihadist group said on
its Al-Bayan radio.
"The second hostage is calling on his relatives to put
pressure on the (Japanese) government for the release
of our sister Sajida al-Rishawi, held in the jails of the
oppressors in Jordan, in exchange for his release."
Rishawi was sentenced to death by a Jordanian court in
September 2006 in connection with triple hotel bomb
attacks in Amman the previous year that killed 60
people.
Her name emerged Saturday in an IS video that showed
Goto holding what appears to be a photograph of
Yukawa's slain body.
The video came with an audio recording in which a man
claiming to be Goto says Yukawa was killed because
Japan had failed to pay a $200 million ransom within a
72-hour deadline announced Tuesday.
The video unleashed a tide of global revulsion while
Yukawa's father voiced horror and shock.
"I thought 'Ah, this finally happened' and was filled with
regret," said Shoichi Yukawa.
"I went totally blank, I was only sorry… I had no words,"
he said. "In my mind I wish very much that this wasn't
true."
Abe branded the murder of Yukawa as "outrageous and
unforgivable" and called for Goto's immediate release.
"I condemn it strongly and resolutely," said the
Japanese leader.
– 'Barbarity' –
US President Barack Obama condemned the "brutal
murder" and offered Abe condolences while expressing
his solidarity with the people of Japan.
British Prime Minister David Cameron decried the Islamic
State group's "murderous barbarity", and French
President Francois Hollande labelled it a "barbaric
assassination".
Germany and the EU also condemned the killing by IS,
an extremist Sunni Muslim group which activists say
carries out near-daily executions, often beheadings, in
areas under its control.
The group, which originated in Iraq and appeared in
Syria's civil war in spring 2013, holds swathes of Syria
and Iraq where it has declared an Islamic "caliphate".
Since then it has committed atrocities including the
beheadings of two US reporters, an American aid worker
and two British aid workers.
The Amman bombings — including one that hit a hotel
where a wedding party was in full swing — were claimed
by Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Al-Qaeda
leader in Iraq who was killed in a US air raid there in
June 2006.
His group was a precursor of IS, and Rishawi's brother,
Samir Atruss al-Rishawi, who was also killed in Iraq,
was one of Zarqawi's top lieutenants.
– Ransom –
Saturday's video was initially met with scepticism,
partly because it was not posted on an official IS
channel and does not bear their usual black and white
flag.
Goto's mother Junko Ishido told reporters Sunday she
was left with little hope after seeing the picture of her
son, in which he "looked very tense".
"Japan never abandons its people," she said. "I believe
the government is united and doing its best."
Sunday's radio statement made no mention of the $200
million ransom that the group had initially demanded,
but only referred to the release of Sajida al-Rishawi.
The 44-year-old woman has been sentenced to death in
Jordan, which lifted an eight-year moratorium on capital
punishment in December by hanging 11 men convicted
of murder.
The ransom demand came as Abe pledged, during a trip
to the Middle East, a multi-million dollar aid package to
countries affected by the militant group's bloody
expansion in Iraq and Syria.
But Abe has been defiant.
"We will never give in to terrorism, and we will actively
contribute to the peace and stability of the world
together with the international community. We are not
wavering at all on this policy," he said Sunday.
Courtesy: Vanguard news
Broadcast by Obele Calistus