US rights leader to plead for Gaza hostages' release [+ audio]

Veteran US civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson wants to lead a delegation to the Middle East in an effort help free NZ cameraman Olaf Wiig and his American colleague Steve Centanni.

Wiig, who is married to television presenter Anita McNaught, and Centanni were abducted by masked gunmen in Gaza City on August 14 as they were working on a story for Fox News. Nothing had been heard of their captors until a videotape was released overnight by a previously unknown group - the Holy Jihad Brigades.

The group demanded the United States release all Muslim prisoners within the next 72-hours.

In an interview with CNN, Reverend Jackson said he wanted to help in problem areas in the Middle East and would do everything in his power to go there to secure the pair's rescue.

"I believe all nations must see the value of releasing prisoners as a means of releasing tensions in the area," Jackson said.

He said his group was concerned about the fate of Israeli soldiers held hostage by Hizbollah, as well as by the kidnapping of Wigg and Centanni.

Jackson has had success several times in the past in negotiating the release of political hostages, but acknowledged Wigg and Centanni's case was particularly difficult because so little was known about the militant group holding them.

Jackson has successfully acted as an intermediary before in Syria, Cuba, Iraq and Yugoslavia.

He said his mission in the Middle East would also try to arrange humanitarian aid in Lebanon and the Israeli city of Haifa.

Jackson's 10-person delegation - consisting of Jewish, Muslim, Roman Catholic and Protestant groups - will visit Syria, Lebanon and Israel.

An international security expert earlier said the demands issued by Wigg and Centanni's captors were unrealistic and had no chance of being met.

Fred Burton, vice-president at US-based private intelligence company Stratfor, told Newstalk ZB the group could be either a criminal gang seeking to make money for the hostages, or a radical splinter group of a terrorist organisation in the region.

Mr Burton said it was surprising they had taken so long to make communication.

He added: "With them making an unrealistic demand such as the release of all Muslim prisoners, that obviously is not going to happen.

"However, you don't see any follow up as to what their next move is going to be. So I find that very intriguing."

The key point would come at the expiry of the 72-hour deadline as the captors had given no indication of what would happen then, he said.

Conversations with the intelligence community in Washington today had not thrown any light on the group, he said. This was not unusual because groups sometimes sought to disguise who they are.

Though the video was undated, he did not think it likely that the men could have been killed and he noted the good condition they were in.

- NEWSTALK ZB, NZHERALD STAFF, AGENCIES