The mothers of two Canadian peace activists held hostage in Iraq are pleading directly with their captors for their sons to be freed unharmed.

Manjeet Kaur Sooden, the mother of 32-year-old Canadian Harmeet Singh Sooden, made the emotional appeal to a television network in New Zealand where her son has been studying for the past three years.

"I am the mother of Harmeet Singh Sooden who is being held in Iraq. I want to appeal to those who are holding my son to release him and his companions unharmed," she told TV3 network, her voice cracking.

"Harmeet ... is a peace-loving man. He went to Iraq to do good. I pray those who are holding Harmeet will look into their hearts (and) see the good that is in my son," she said during a visit to New Zealand.

TV3 said it would supply the mother's televised plea to Qatar-based news channel Al-Jazeera.

Besides Sooden, there are three other captives:

• Toronto resident James Loney, 41,
• Briton Norman Kember, 74, and
• American Tom Fox, 54

Kidnappers snatched them nine days ago near Baghdad. The kidnappers identified their group as the Swords of Righteousness Brigade, a previously unknown group.

On Friday, Al-Jazeera broadcast some video of the hostages. The group claiming to have kidnapped them is demanding the release of all prisoners in U.S. and Iraqi detention centres.

Quoting a statement delivered with the video, Al-Jazeera reports that the group has given Dec. 8 as its deadline. If the prisoners aren't freed by then, the captors have threatened to kill the four hostages.

The kidnappers claim that the four hostages are spies merely posing as peace activists, an allegation that the Christian Peacemaker Teams denies.

Other pleas

Meanwhile, Loney's mother and sister have also pleaded for his release.

In a videotaped statement released Saturday, Loney's mother pleaded for her son to be allowed to live.

"Please release him," said Claudette Loney. "We miss him. We love him. And we want him home."

The videotape was recorded by the Christian Peacemaker Teams organization in English with a simultaneous Arabic translation.

They hope the tape will be broadcast on Arab networks and seen by Loney's captors.

Kember's wife Pat and Fox's daughter also joined the chorus of family members on Sunday.

Pat Kember said her husband was a "very caring man" who wanted to help the Iraqi people.

"My father made a choice to travel to Iraq and listen to those who are not heard,'' said a statement which did not give Fox's daughter's name.

"He meets with families who are missing loved ones. He has spent most of his time in Iraq trying to free detainees."

CTV's Middle East bureau chief Janis Mackey Frayer reports that the videotaped appeals have been getting some airtime on Iraqi television.

"The hope, of course, that the kidnappers will see those taped pleas from the family members and perhaps agree to release the hostages by that deadline on Thursday," she reported from Baghdad, appearing on CTV's Canada AM.

Meanwhile in Toronto on Sunday, three friends of James Loney held a vigil on the steps of a city home. They lit candles, sang and prayed for the captives.

A New Zealand student activist group, Auckland University Students for Justice in Palestine, intends to hold a vigil Monday to show solidarity with Sooden, in an effort to dispel the suggestion that he is a spy.

New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark said Sunday her government has offered assistance in "working toward the safe release of the hostages."

While families plea for their loved ones' lives, some analysts say it's a strategy that may not work.

"Are they (the kidnappers) going to be swayed by these harrowing appeals? I don't think so," said terrorism expert Eric Margolis. "What I think will happen is that other Iraqis around them will be swayed."

Former CSIS agent Michel Juneau-Katsuya agrees, saying it's difficult to tell if the message is being heard by the captors.

"Unfortunately, studies demonstrate that pleas of this nature don't always reach kidnappers," Juneau-Katsuya said, appearing on CTV's Canada AM.

Juneau-Katsuya says information on the Swords of Righteousness Brigade is scarce, so it will be difficult to predict the groups' reaction.

"What works in the (hostages) favour is that a lot of people from various spectrums and religious backgrounds are coming forward and saying 'Listen, these guys are not the bad guys -- they were there to help.'"