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Family shocked at condition of Sooden

Mr Sooden, 32, a Canadian citizen who lived and studied in New Zealand, was shown yesterday on a video broadcast on Al Jazeera television along with three other peace activists captured more than two months ago.

Mr Sooden's brother-in-law Mark Brewer told Radio New Zealand it was a relief for the family to see the images after such a long period of time but Mr Sooden's appearance had changed considerably.

The video was the first news of the hostages since December 7, when their captors, the Swords of Truth group, said they would be killed on December 10 unless Iraqi prisoners in American and Iraqi prisons were released.

"He looks pretty dishevelled and I think he's lost a bit of weight and he's obviously looking very tired so you know for us to see someone we care about in that situation is very difficult," Mr Brewer said.

The family was waiting to get an unedited copy of the tape from Iraq in the hope of discovering more of about Mr Sooden's condition.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said Mr Sooden's family would be delighted that the video shown today, which was dated January 21, showed that he and his colleagues were still alive.

"Harmeet's family and the families of the three other hostages with him have had a long and worrying delay since they last heard news of their loved ones," Miss Clark said.

"The New Zealand Government continues to urge the captors of Harmeet and his friends to release them. All four were on a peaceful mission to Iraq, and were motivated purely by a desire to help the Iraqi people."

Mr Sooden, Briton Norman Kember, American Tom Fox and Canadian James Loney were kidnapped on November 26 in Baghdad, where they were working with a Christian peace organisation, Christian Peacemaker Teams.

The previously unknown Swords of Truth had claimed the quartet were spies but friends and several groups, both Muslim and Christian, have insisted they were friends of the Iraqi people and against the American-led presence in Iraq.

Diplomatic efforts to free Mr Sooden have been led by the Canadian government, which Miss Clark said New Zealand was doing its best to support.

"Our government will continue to liaise closely with the government of Canada and other governments to support their efforts to secure the release of Harmeet and his friends," she said.