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| Junko Ishido, mother of Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, speaks during a press conference at her home in Tokyo, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015 after the release of an online video that purported to show an Islamic State group militant beheading her son. Japan condemned with outrage and horror on Sunday the video posted on militant websites late Saturday Middle East time. |
TOKYO (AP) --
The wife of slain Japanese hostage Kenji Goto said Monday she was
devastated but proud of her husband, who was beheaded by Islamic State
extremists.
In a statement issued through the
British-based journalist group Rory Peck Trust, Rinko Jogo requested
privacy for her family as they deal with their loss, and thanked those
who had supported them.
"I remain extremely
proud of my husband, who reported the plight of people in conflict areas
like Iraq, Somalia and Syria," she said.
"It
was his passion to highlight the effects on ordinary people, especially
through the eyes of children, and to inform the rest of us of the
tragedies of war," she said.
Goto left for
Syria in late October just a few weeks after the birth of the couple's
youngest daughter. Soon after, he was captured by the militants.
Appalled
and saddened by news of Goto's following the release of a video showing
his killing, purportedly by the Islamic State group, Japan has ordered
heightened security precautions at airports and at Japanese facilities
overseas, such as embassies and schools, government spokesman Yoshihide
Suga said.
Until now, Japan had not become directly embroiled in the fight against the militants.
In
parliamentary debate Monday, opposition lawmakers challenged Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe's effort to raise Japan's diplomatic profile through
non-military support for countries fighting the Islamic State group,
which control about a third of both Syria and Iraq.
Citing
previous cases, including a 1995 sarin gas attack in Tokyo's subways,
Abe said he did not see an increased terrorist risk following savage
threats in the purported Islamic State group video, which vowed to
target Japanese and make the knife Goto's killer was wielding Japan's
"nightmare."
Japan will persevere in providing
humanitarian aid to countries fighting the Islamic State extremists,
said Abe, who explained that bowing to terrorist intimidation would
prevent Japan from providing medical assistance and other aid it views
as necessary for helping to restore stability in the region.
The failure to save Goto raised fears for the life of a Jordanian fighter pilot also held by the Islamic State militants.
Jordan
renewed an offer Sunday to swap an al-Qaida prisoner for the pilot, Lt.
Muath al-Kaseasbeh, who was seized after his F-16 crashed near the
Islamic State group's de facto capital, Raqqa, Syria, in December.
Government
spokesman Mohammed al-Momani told The Associated Press that "we are
still ready to hand over" prisoner Sajida al-Rishawi, who faces death by
hanging for her role in triple hotel bombings in Jordan in 2005.
Al-Rishawi has close family ties to the Iraq branch of al-Qaida, a
precursor of the Islamic State group.
With no
updates for days, al-Kaseasbeh's family appealed to the government for
information on his situation. But for Goto's family and friends, the
beheading shattered any hopes for his rescue.
Jogo,
Goto's wife, said she had received several emails from unknown people
claiming to be her husband's captors. But the hostage crisis became a
national issue after the militants issued a demand for $200 million in
ransom, to be paid within 72 hours, on Jan. 20.
Later,
the militants' demand shifted to seeking the release of al-Rishawi, who
survived the 2005 attack that killed 60 people when her explosive belt
failed to detonate in the worst terror attack in Jordan's history.
Jordan
and Japan reportedly conducted indirect negotiations with the militants
through Iraqi tribal leaders, but late on Friday the Japanese envoy
sent to Amman to work on the hostage crisis reported a deadlock in those
efforts.
The U.N. Security Council issued a
statement Sunday demanding "the immediate, safe and unconditional
release of all those who are kept hostage" by the Islamic State group.
Council members underlined the need to bring those responsible for
Goto's "heinous and cowardly murder" to justice and stressed that the
Islamic State group "must be defeated and that the intolerance, violence
and hatred it espouses must be stamped out."
