Canadian peace activist Harmeet Singh Sooden, who was kidnapped in Iraq, says he feels sympathy for his abductors. Sooden, a member of the Christian Peacemakers Teams, told the Straight from his New Zealand home that the kidnappers seemed to be politically motivated and were genuinely fighting against the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

“They were aware of what they were doing””that is, violently resisting the illegal occupation,” Sooden said. “We were sympathetic to their resistance to the occupation. The only difference is that we believe in nonviolence, whereas they don't have this choice.”

The Iraqi militants abducted Sooden and three other members of the Christian Peacemakers Teams from Baghdad last November. Sooden, James Loney (another Canadian citizen), and Norman Kember, a Briton, were rescued by Coalition troops last month. The fourth hostage, Tom Fox, an American, was shot dead before their release.

Sooden claimed that he is still sympathetic toward the abductors despite the murder of Fox. “This is what Tom would have wanted me to say,” Sooden said.

He added that most of the kidnappers were from the war-torn Fallujah region of Iraq and had suffered during the 2004 invasion. One of their guards said that he had lost both parents and two siblings while another one from Baghdad claimed to have lost eight family members.

Sooden said that the abductors knew that he and the other abductees were peace workers and treated them with dignity and respect. He added that he believes they were abducted for ransom, as foreigners are mainly kidnapped to fund the insurgency. He also claimed that he doesn't believe that they were rescued but he couldn't provide any evidence to suggest that they were released as part of some negotiations.

However, Sooden added, the abductors had claimed that they would use Fox for the exchange of prisoners when they took him away in February and killed him.