Japan hostages billed $30,000 for travel expenses

[DC09]

TOKYO (AP) - Three Japanese who were held hostage for a week in Iraq were billed about $10,000 Cdn each to cover their plane tickets home and other miscellaneous expenses, an official said Monday.

The three returned last week amid a storm of criticism that they behaved recklessly in going to a country that Japan had repeatedly warned civilians to avoid. The government said aid workers Noriaki Imai, 18, and Nahoko Takato, 34, and freelance photojournalist Soichiro Koriyama, 32, were being billed in the same manner as other Japanese civilians who have been transported home after getting into trouble overseas.

A travel agency has sent the former hostages and their families invoices, a Foreign Ministry official said on condition of anonymity. The ministry believes the three should pay the agency directly, she added.

They were kidnapped by militants who threatened to burn them alive if Tokyo did not withdraw its troops from Iraq within three days. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi refused to comply, and the gunmen released the three unharmed a week later after an appeal by Islamic clerics.

They received a chilly welcome in Japan, however, amid accusations they imperilled Tokyo's humanitarian mission. Satoru Saito, a psychiatrist who examined them, said the pressures of coming home to Japan added to their stress of being in captivity.

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[<bleeding_heart>]

Well they were told not to go! I wonder how much they would have to have paid to go home if all had gone well?

[bathory]

hehe, now two of them want to go back lol

i think maybe they have chorus and a little bit of overdrive?

and then it sounds like that ibanez 7string distortion pedel assuming they aren't using amp based distortion