Italians rally for peace to free hostages in Iraq. Captors ordered protest

[demdave]

Italians rally for peace to free hostages in Iraq
Captors ordered protest; some see it as blackmail

ROME - Waving rainbow-striped flags for peace, Italians marched to the front steps of the Vatican on yesterday to show solidarity with three Italian men taken hostage in Iraq - just days after the Iraqi captors ordered they do so.

In a video shown on Arabic satellite television on Monday, the hostage-takers demanded Italians rise up in protest against their government's decision to maintain troops in Iraq. In exchange, the militants said they would spare the lives of the hostages. They gave a deadline of five days.

Some Italians - including the government and most of the opposition - charged that staging the march yesterday would be caving in to blackmail. They stayed away.

But others, led by the families of the captured men and backed by Pope John Paul II, insisted any gesture was worth making. One of the original four Italians seized on April 12 already has been executed by his captors.

"If we do not do this perhaps it will be too late," the father of one of the hostages, Angelo Stefio, told reporters at the start of the demonstration
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.italy30apr30,0,1275319.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headlines

[kimchi]

1. Uh-oh--I see the spinning already--the Pope is a terrorist.

But you knew that.

[Moderator]

2. Story is dated April 30th