TOKYO
The mother of one of two Japanese hostages threatened with execution by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants has made an emotional appeal for his release, telling reporters Friday that his motivation for being in the region was humanitarian.
“My son is not an enemy of Islamic State,” the Japan Times reported Junko Ishido as telling a packed Tokyo news conference. “If I could offer my life I would plead that my son be released. It would be a small sacrifice on my part.”
In a video released Tuesday, a masked man ordered Japan to pay a $200 million ransom within 72 hours to secure the release of freelance journalist Kenji Goto and another man. Japanese government sources have told Kyodo news agency they were unclear when the deadline would expire but later said they believed it was 2.50 p.m. Friday (0550GMT).
Reports have said that Goto, 47, had travelled to Syria to find and ask for the release of Haruna Yukawa, a security contractor reportedly captured in August, when he was taken.
Occasionally wiping away tears, the 76-year-old mother apologized for any trouble her son had caused, saying that his motivation for visiting Syria was a simple humanitarian desire to report from troubled parts of the world. She disclosed that Goto had departed for ISIL-occupied territory less than two weeks after his wife gave birth in October to try to help in the release of a colleague.
"He thought that if he could speak directly to Islamic State he could make them understand… I am asking Islamic State from the bottom of my heart to let him go. He is not in any way an enemy.”
She said that she knew very little about ISIL, and invited any Muslim children who wanted to come to Japan for tourism or study to stay at her home.
Yoshihide Suga, chief cabinet secretary, told reporters “there has been no message” from the captors.
National broadcaster NHK reported early Friday that it had received a message from ISIL "public relations" saying that a statement would be released soon.
As of 7.30 a.m. GMT, no report of the hostages’ condition had been received.
While the Japanese government says it has not yet been able to make a contact with representatives of ISIL, Suga said they have verified the authenticity of the video. So the question of actually paying the ransom has not yet arisen, as far as anyone can tell.
As the Japanese government sought ways to communicate with the captors, two private Japanese-Muslim citizens, claiming to have contacts with ISIL or at least experience of captivity by militants, offered their help in recovering the hostages alive.
Ko Nakata, a former professor of Islamic studies at Kyoto’s Doshisha University who also goes by the name of Hassan, offered himself as a possible intermediary.
Kousuke Tsuneoka, a journalist who sent a Twitter message from a captor’s phone in Afghanistan in 2010 prior to his release, has also offered to help. Tsuneoka had apparently traveled to Syria in September in an unsuccessful mission to win Yukawa’s release.
The Japanese government, which has relatively few avenues of communication with the militants, was seeking help from all possible channels, despite not specifically endorsing the efforts of the two private citizens.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had been on a trip to the Middle East when the video of the two Japanese hostages was broadcast. During the trip, he had pledged $200 million in non-military aid to the region -- used as justification for the ransom demand.
The government’s chief spokesperson has emphasized that the money was strictly for humanitarian purposes, such as helping fund refugee efforts for those fleeing the conflict in Syria.
Japan’s pacifistic constitution prohibits the country from sending military aid abroad.
ISIL has captured large swathes of land in Iraq and Syria, later declaring the territories under its control an Islamic caliphate.
The group also holds British journalist John Cantlie and a 26-year-old American female aid worker.
