By: (AP) The head of a Japanese aid group on Friday brushed aside charges that aid workers were reckless for ignoring official advisories to leave Iraq, amid a national debate sparked by the kidnapping of five Japanese civilians in the Mideast nation.
Five Japanese civilians -- an aid worker, two activists, and two journalists -- were among a spate of foreigners kidnapped and held hostage in Iraq this month. All were released unharmed.
They came home this week to relief as well as criticism that they were partially to blame for ignoring a series of evacuation advisories issued by the Japanese government after war broke out in Iraq last March.
Michiya Kumaoka, president of the Japan International Volunteer Center, defended their presence in Iraq and said: "We take responsibility for our decisions.
"There's an unspoken understanding in the government that volunteer groups and journalists are going to enter war zones and that such warnings are mainly intended for travelers, tourists and business people," he said.
Kumaoka, whose group is supplying medicine to two children's hospitals in Baghdad, decided to pull out its only representative in Iraq this month as fighting escalated across the country.
While emphasizing that aid workers like himself accept the consequences of the risks they take, Kumaoka argued that all governments have a duty to protect their citizens.
"We've been criticized by people who say we presume we'll be rescued because we're supposed to be 'doing good,'" he said. "But the government has a duty to act if something happens to any of its citizens."
Japanese officials have said they plan to charge the hostages for the costs of flying them back to Japan -- a decision Kumaoka said he "couldn't understand."
He said there had been "no such debate" about footing the bill when a Japanese businessman kidnapped in the Philippines was released after a long period in captivity.
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