xml file node value not getting in iE?

i have this xml file

<form> <age>18 To 25~18-25</age><religion>No Religious Belief~8</religion><mothertongue>Any~1</mothertongue><countries>Any~0</countries><work_status>Any~2</work_status><photo>Any~0</photo> </form>
 

i want to get nodevalue of the node countries(by name, not by position, because postion can vary) .

after parsing, i am using this in my javascript code

xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("countries")[0].childNodes[0].nodeValue

it is giving me correct value in mozilla but not in ie
error occurs that object is required

please help

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