KRT: 60 people are kidnapped in Baghdad every day

[sabra]

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060607/NEWS07/606070352/1009

In Iraq, rich pretend to be poor
Doing so can help foil kidnappers

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Baghdad's al Rashid Street, one of the city's oldest, was once full of intellectual and commercial life. Poets and scholars traded ideas over tea in small cafes where men played dominoes. Young men shopped for affordable fashions.

Now, it's desolate, and shops such as Abu Haider's are empty. Most of his customers have fled the country; the rest are afraid to be seen in his shop, where fine suits hang. Only the rich shop there, kidnappers might conclude, making shoppers susceptible to abduction.

Indeed, in a country whose populace is undeniably richer now than during Saddam Hussein's regime, keeping up with the Joneses means not showing wealth, because kidnapping has become so rampant.

Those who can afford the best have replaced their nice cars with clunkers, don plain clothes and carry second-rate cell phones.

...

According to police estimates, at least 60 people are kidnapped in Baghdad every day, often by thugs seeking ransom. But paying thousands of dollars doesn't guarantee one's release. Many bodies are found daily in alleys and fields, some beheaded. Most were kidnapped.