Japanese scholar alleges errors in Islamic State hostage crisis
Islamic expert who tried to join negotiations to free Japanese Islamic State captives says Tokyo disregarded crucial lines of communication
Japan's government opened a communication channel with Islamic State in the decisive stages of its recent hostage crisis but was unwilling to use it to start negotiations, according to a Tokyo-based Islamic scholar who briefly became an intermediary.
Hassan Ko Nakata, 54, who police suspected was a recruiter for IS, was asked by the foreign ministry to pass on a message to the group at the peak of the crisis last month, according to Nakata, associates and records reviewed by journalists.
The request, which had not been previously revealed, shows Tokyo appeared ready at one point to talk to the Islamic State to free two Japanese men who had been captured in Syria for ransom, despite public vows not to give in to terrorism.
Islamic State beheaded the two hostages - a self-styled security consultant and a veteran war reporter - days later after Japan decided to team up with Jordan to deal with the crisis, a move that is now under scrutiny.
That decision to work exclusively with Amman, which was also trying to free its own hostage from IS, not only closed communications via Nakata but also effectively ended separate contact that had opened up between the wife of hostage Kenji Goto, 47, the reporter, and his captors.
"The government sidelined whatever private communication channels there were in place and proved unable to establish effective contact with the militants until the very end," said Nils Bildt, president of the security consultancy CTSS Japan
The foreign ministry declined to comment on the allegations.
"The Japanese government took all possible measures and considered all options to deal with the hostage crisis but I would like to refrain from commenting on specific steps undertaken by the government," said official Takanori Hayashi.
Nakata, a former Islamic law professor at Kyoto-based Doshisha University who says he no longer supports Islamic State, said he became involved in the hostage crisis last September when he went to Syria on his own accord in a failed bid to secure the release of the first hostage to be taken, Haruna Yukawa.
Goto made a similar mission in late October to free Yukawa but ended up a captive himself.
Shortly after, Goto's wife, Rinko, received an email from IS representatives and tried to engage in talks with the help of a UK security consultancy and people who had worked with Goto in the Middle East, according to four people involved.
Then late last month, after Nakata's return to Japan from Syria, he said he became an intermediary between the foreign ministry and a person he identified as a Chechen fighter with IS, Umar Ghuraba.
"I just wanted to use my connections to help solve the crisis," Nakata said.
On January 21, a day after Islamic State announced a 72-hour deadline to pay US$200 million for Goto and Yukawa, officials at Japan's anti-terrorism taskforce sent an email to an associate of Nakata, Shiko Ogata, 31.
Nakata said he decided not to forward the message, believing it showed no willingness to talk. "If I passed this on, it would be like sending a message to kill the hostages," he said.
The ministry did not follow up about the message or the response from IS, Nakata added.
But on January 23, as the ransom demand neared, Nakata received a message from Umar via smartphone messaging application WhatsApp. It was just after 4.30am in Tokyo.
"There isn't much time left. The Islamic State will carry out its promise," Umar said.
The militant asked Nakata whether an audio message obtained via "negotiation channels" was credible. .
"It's credible," Nakata wrote back after saying he had called the head of the foreign ministry's anti-terrorism taskforce to confirm the statement in the middle of the night.
"It's important that the conditions of the Islamic State are met," Umar wrote back.
But next day a video purportedly showing a beheaded Yukawa was published online. Goto was killed a week later. Nakata says he never heard back from the anti-terrorism taskforce.
