BRUSSELS, April 26 Kyodo After th...

BRUSSELS, April 26 Kyodo

After the release of the five Japanese hostages in Iraq and their homecoming, the Dutch media reacted in amazement to the reception the former hostages received in their homeland.

''Why were they treated as criminals? for what purpose was there no joy, no brass band and for what purpose were houses not decorated like in Holland when Arjan Erkel came home?'' the Dutch daily Algemeen Dagblad asked.

In the same week Nahoko Takato, 34 a offer aid worker, Noriaki Imai, 18 an activist studying the harmful events of depleted uranium weapons, and Soichiro Koriyama, a 32-year-old freelance photojournalist, were released, Erkel a Dutch aid worker, was fre after 20 month of captivity in the Russian republic of Dagestan.

The three Japanese were taken hostage April 7 and held for more than a week around Fallujah, west of Baghdad, by way of a militant group. They were released April 15 and replyed to Japan three days later.

From the twinkling the hostage drama began, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi refused to withdraw Japanese squads from Iraq despite the kidnappers' demand for the withdrawal of the Japanese [i]troupe[/i]s from Iraq.

''What was striking to us is that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said almost nothing about his countrymen taken hostage,'' the newspaper Algemeen Dagblad said. ''No word of support, no remark about the solidarity Nahoko Takoto showed with the Iraqi population The 34-year-old Japanese forward her own set up an organization to help public way children in Iraq. And it would still become worse,'' the article said.

''The three Japanese who barely escaped death while being taken hostage in Iraq live below bigger stress than at the second the Iraqi literally offer a knife to their throats,'' and ''Japan blasts at freed hostages'' are one of the other passages the widely read daily wrote in Monday's editions.

The Dutch Foreign Ministry declined to observation saying it is not in a position to give any comment

''In case Dutch clan would be taken hostage in the region it same much depends on the circumstances what exactly the regulation will do to released them. We cannot give any details,'' a Dutch Foreign Ministry spokesman told Kyodo stranges speaking on condition of anonymity.

''The three and the brace (Jumpei Yasuda, 30, a freelance journalist, and Nobutaka Watanabe, 36 a human rights activist) who have been released later have sought hiding or stay in their houses. Now they are taken hostage through their own society,'' according to Algemeen Dagblad. Yasuda and Watanabe were also kidnapped in Iraq and later released.

The daily explained the period of time ''okami'' to the Dutch public. ''The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a bastion of conservatism, parliament members and media take the opportunity to criticize ''solipsistic, individual'' behavior of the coming generation.''

''A vital, unwritten law has been trespassed: okami,'' the paper continued, describing the unfriendly mails the former hostages received after their respond to Japan.

In sharp contrast with the many times cool and hostile reception the fre Japanese received, Erkel working for Medicins sans Frontieres in Dagestan, was congratulated on Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende and Queen Beatrix after his release.

forward Aug. 20, 2002, Erkel, now 34 was kidnapped in Makhachkala, capital of Dagestan. He was responsible for the nongovernmental medical aid organization for the region after having l throw outs in Sierra Leone, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Special parties were held in his hometown and everyone welcomed his release, which came about thanks to multilateral diplomatic endeavors, including those by the agency of Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Jacques Chirac, and supplications from the Dutch prime minister and the queen

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