Anger grows over Gaza kidnappings

After an eight-hour kidnap ordeal, Hendrik Taatgen, who is Ductch, and Brian Ambrosio, and Australian, were swept into the Palestinian presidential compound on Wednesday afternoon to be met by reporters and schoolchildren.

The two men, the principal and vice-principal of a private international school, were the victims of the latest in a string of kidnappings to sweep Gaza.

Taatgen told Aljazeera.net that he was not hurt, but quite "shaken" by the experience.

In a videotaped statement, gunmen claiming to belong to an armed wing of the Palestinian Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.

The group said the incident was intended to pressure the Palestinian Authority (PA) to release its leaders, who are in jail in Jericho for killing an Israeli cabinet minister in 2001.

But Rabah Muhanna, a political leader in the PFLP, denied that his party was involved in the kidnapping, saying the gunmen were young men masquerading as PFLP who wanted a piece of the PA pay-off pie.

"We absolutely condemn the kidnappings," Muhanna told Aljazeera.net. "The PFLP and its military wings, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, had nothing to do with this crime. We assured Abu Mazen of this from the very start in talks we had this morning. We let him know that we are against such tactics."

He said the latest kidnapping was "the work of uncivil young men who formed their own brigade and linked it to the PFLP".

The growing incidence of kidnappings, Muhanna said, was the result of the PA's own actions. "They have been acquiescing to kidnappers' demands in the past and encouraging others to continue the practice," he said.

Security chaos

Gaza has been wracked by lawlessness and a total security breakdown in recent months marked by a spate of kidnappings, bombings, as well as shootings targeting PA officials, foreigners, and members of the judiciary.

The kidnappers' demands have been growing and although the incidents are usually resolved peacefully, they are seen as a challenge to Mahmoud Abbas's shaky authority and his party's standing in forthcoming parliamentary elections.

Gunmen involved in the incidents are often disgruntled members of Abbas's own Fatah party, one of its armed wings, or renegade members of other small armed factions who want promotions, jobs, or pay-offs.

Critics have pointed fingers at the PA for not doing enough to maintain order and prevent the attacks, and human rights groups have flatly condemned them.

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