Harmeet Sooden is also a New Zealand resident, his family live in NZ and he was studying at Auckland University when he went over.
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http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3616705a11,00.html
Freed hostage may reach NZ on Monday
26 March 2006
By JENNIFER DANN
Freed hostage Harmeet Sooden is expected to arrive home in New Zealand as early as tomorrow.
The 33-year-old Auckland student, rescued by coalition forces in Iraq on Thursday after four months in captivity, was yesterday on his way to meet his father Dalip Sooden and brother-in-law Mark Brewer in Jordan before flying home.
Fellow hostages Briton Norman Kember and Canadian Jim Loney were also preparing to leave Iraq yesterday. The body of American hostage Tom Fox was found in a Baghdad rubbish dump last month.
Sooden's return comes amid British newspaper reports that the three were ungrateful and unco-operative with the military forces who freed them.
The Guardian quoted an unnamed security source who said the pacifists refused to fully co-operate with an intelligence unit sent to gather information about their kidnappers.
Kember was reported to be the most helpful, giving details of the semi-rural area north-west of Baghdad where he was held and confirming the kidnappers were criminals, rather than insurgents, whose motive was money.
Canadian citizens Sooden and Loney, 41, were said to be initially co-operative, but less so on arriving at the British embassy in Baghdad after being given the opportunity to wash, eat and rest. None of the Christian Peacemaker Teams members had publicly thanked the rescuers, the paper said.
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Auckland University student Daniele Abreu e Lima said she didn't believe Sooden had refused to co-operate or had been rude.
"He's a gentleman. A pacifist. When he speaks, he's incapable of saying any word that would offend anybody."
She said the fact the kidnappers fled just before the British soldiers arrived indicated they had been voluntarily freed their hostages and the rescue could have been conducted by any organisation.
Lima said Sooden was relieved and talkative when he rang her at 4am on Friday. He told her the most harm he came to was during the hospital check-up after his release, when doctors struggled to find a vein for a blood sample from his naturally thin frame.
"The first question he had for me was `had I been playing squash?' He was my coach. I said `no, of course not!"'
She said Sooden's suspicions that Fox had been killed were confirmed only when he rang.
"He was shocked," Lima said. "To lose a colleague will change his life but not in a way to make him change what he's doing. If anything, it will emphasise it more."
"They're not naive. There's always a risk but it's worth it. When you do a social job like this, it's bigger than you."
Sooden had also phoned his Australian peacekeeper friend Donna Mulhearn, who will fly to Auckland today to see him.
"To hear his voice so strong, I was so happy. I was pleased at how normal he sounded. The first thing he said was: `How are you doing?' I said `What? How are you doing?' It was so typical of Harmeet."
She said Sooden was surprised to hear how big a story his capture had been in New Zealand. He still considered New Zealand his home, and hoped to return to his studies next semester, having missed the first semester while in captivity.
The claims the hostages were ungrateful and exposed their rescuers to danger have been denied by Ekklesia, the British religious think-tank which works with CPT. Ekklesia and Kember's wife had made statements of appreciation to the soldiers and others involved in the rescue.