Nurse says Iraqis held her captive
A Greek nurse working in Iraq for the non-governmental organization «Heart Doctors» claims she was kidnapped by Iraqis and held for 10 hours earlier this month. Eleni Sotiriou told the daily Ta Nea yesterday, before returning on another humanitarian mission to Iraq, that, as she was returning from the hospital in Fallujah to her Baghdad hotel on Easter Sunday, April 11, her taxi was stopped by two young men who forced her into their car, put a bag over her head and took her to what she said must have been a stable. Her captors repeatedly asked her if she was Italian, Spanish, British or American. Sotiriou said she eventually managed to convince them she was a Greek nurse. «As Iraqis you should be ashamed of what you have done to me. I have come to Iraq eight times to help your people,» she said she told them, showing them the mark on her arm where she had donated blood that day for an Iraqi patient. She said they apologized, saying that «all Europeans’ passports looked alike on the outside» and later took her back to her hotel.
