Hopes rise for safety of last Iraq hostage

Published on Wednesday 29 July 2009 22:06

DESPERATE efforts are under way to try to secure the release of the remaining British hostage in Iraq, after families were told the devastating news that two more of the five kidnap victims are believed to be dead.

Scot Alan McMenemy is one of two security guards now said to have been killed by Shiite militants, who seized the men from the Iraqi finance ministry in Baghdad in May 2007.

Last month, the bodies of fellow hostages Jason Creswell, from Glasgow, and Jason Swindlehurst, from Lancashire, were handed over to the British Embassy in Baghdad.

Yesterday, Iraqi officials confirmed the deaths of Mr McMenemy and his colleague, Alec MacLachlan. A source said the fate of the fifth hostage, IT consultant Peter Moore, hung on the planned release of two militia leaders next week.

To read further analysis of this story, go here

Sami al-Askari, an MP with the governing Shiite alliance who is close to Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, said: "Four of the hostages are dead. Two of them have been handed over, and there are efforts being made by the government with the abductors to release the others."

Mr Askari said it was not clear when the other two bodies would be returned. He also said all four had been killed at the same time and Mr Moore was believed to be still alive.

A senior Shiite source said the two bodies could be handed over, and Mr Moore released, if the Iraqi government freed two militia leaders as expected next week.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown also suggested that Mr Moore, who was being guarded by the other four men, was still alive, giving his family hope his release could still be secured.

That glimmer of hope comes after two years of torturous waiting for all five families.

And the news of the fate of at least four of the hostages has provoked criticism of the government's handing of the situation.

The Prime Minister broke off from his holiday in Scotland to emphasise that ministers were doing everything they could to secure the release of Mr Moore.

He said: "I can confirm that on 20 July, with great sadness, the government informed two families of those British men kidnapped in Iraq that Alan McMenemy and Alec MacLachlan, two of the three hostages still held, were very likely to be dead.

"This is the worst of news, and my thoughts are with the families, who I hope will be given the privacy they need to deal with their grief."

He went on: "I and the entire government are committed to doing everything we can for the release of Peter Moore, whom we still believe to be alive."

Mr Brown called for clarity on the fate of Mr Moore and added that hostage-taking could never be justified and had "no place in Iraq's future".

Those remarks were echoed by Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who said hostage-taking belonged in Iraq's "dark past".

Both men's remarks were a coded message to the militants who seized the hostages – demanding the release of nine of their associates held by the US military – and who are involved in a power struggle with Iraq's government.

There is still no tangible evidence that Mr McMenemy and Mr MacLachlan are dead, but sources said they strongly believed they had been killed.

Post-mortem examinations of the bodies of the two hostages handed over last month revealed they had died of gunshots.

The families of Mr McMenemy, from Glasgow, and Mr MacLachlan, of Llanelli, South Wales, made emotional televised appeals for the kidnappers to send the men home.

Mr McMenemy's wife, Roseleen, said: "You understand how frightened we are to hear these reports, and how hard it is for us to consider what may have happened to Alan.

"We continue to hope and pray that these reports cannot be true. We are desperate to have Alan home with his family."

Hailey Williams, Mr MacLachlan's former girlfriend and the mother of his child, said:

"I speak to you as the mother of Alec's son. We are not the people holding your men, but I do understand your feelings, because you are going through the same pain that we are going through.

"If we had any influence over the release of your men, we would release them to you, but we don't. Please send him home, because as a family we can't cope with this any more."

Pauline Sweeney, Mr Moore's stepmother, pleaded for his release. She said: "We have been to the two funerals, of Jason Creswell and Jason Swindlehurst, and now we are allegedly informed that Alec and Alan are also no longer with us.

"I plead to the hostage-takers to send home the bodies of Alec and Alan so that their parents can have closure and move on. And I appeal to them to please let Peter come back alive."

Mr Moore's father was more critical of the Foreign Office's initial reluctance to publicise the plight of the hostages, describing his

son's fate as a "lottery".

Graeme Moore said: "This just proves that the Foreign Office has mishandled it. There were rumours two weeks ago that the two bodyguards had been shot dead.

"Gordon Brown was in Leicester on Saturday, but he didn't bother to speak to me. At the moment, we are going on the hope that Peter is alive and we can't really say any more than that. Had they (the Foreign Office] handled it right, all five would have been released two years ago. I'm convinced of it."

Former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell also called into question the lack of publicity surrounding the case and the accuracy of British intelligence.

"The long-term position of the Foreign Office has been to keep any negotiations below the radar and to seek to impose a blackout on publicity. But in this case, that does not seem to have worked," said Sir Menzies, who is on the Commons foreign affairs committee.

"There is also a question of how good our intelligence has been when these incidents take place. At the very least, we should have our policy, accepting that particular circumstances may dictate a different approach.

"There is no single way to resolve these difficult cases, but it remains that we could learn from other nations who have adopted a different approach."

His remarks follow criticism from former Foreign Office minister Kim Howells, who admitted he had questioned whether the government was speaking to the right group. Dr Howells, who was at the Foreign Office from 2005 until October last year and is chairman of Westminster's intelligence and security committee, also voiced frustration at the difficulty of getting reliable information about the hostages.

But Lord Foulkes, who also sits on the committee, defended the Foreign Office's strategy. The Labour peer said: "It is very difficult in dealing with these cases on the ground, but very easy to criticise from an armchair."

Conservative leader David Cameron also backed the government's efforts. He said: "I cannot imagine what the families of Alan McMenemy and Alec MacLachlan have been through over the past two years.

"To be separated from your loved ones is hard enough. To know they are suffering is terrible. Now, to be told that the likelihood is that they have died must be truly unbearable."

Since the men were seized two years ago, several videos of them in captivity have emerged.

In February 2008, a video featuring Mr Moore was aired by Dubai-based al-Arabiya television, in which he called on Mr Brown to free nine Iraqis in return for the hostages' freedom.

No clear idea of who or why

RESPONSIBILITY for the kidnapping was at first pinned on Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.

It was thought to be a retaliatory attack for the killing by British forces of the militia's commander in Basra, in southern Iraq, a week earlier.

However, al-Sadr's followers denied responsibility and suspicion fell on splinter groups, which the US believes are controlled by Iran.

The kidnappers, calling themselves the Islamic Shiite Resistance in Iraq, have issued several videos featuring the captives and making demands.

Timeline

&#149 29 MAY 2007: Five Britons are seized by 40 armed men wearing police uniforms at the Iraqi finance ministry in Baghdad.

&#149 4 DECEMBER: The kidnappers issue a video warning that one hostage will be killed unless British troops are withdrawn from Iraq within ten days.

&#149 9 DECEMBER: On a visit to Iraq, Prime Minister Gordon Brown calls for the men's immediate release.

&#149 12 DECEMBER: The families of the hostages appeal for them to be freed.

&#149 26 FEBRUARY 2008: Al-Arabiya TV broadcasts another video clip received from the kidnappers.

&#149 29 FEBRUARY: The families of the five men issue a direct appeal to their kidnappers.

&#149 5 MARCH: The Islamic Shia Resistance in Iraq, the group that claims to be holding the men, posts a response on the internet.

&#149 29 MAY: On the first anniversary of the kidnapping, the UK's ambassador to Iraq appeals for the captives to be freed.

&#149 19 JULY: The kidnappers release a video claiming one of the hostages had taken his own life.

&#149 22 MARCH 2009: The hostage-takers send a video demanding the release of the founder of the militia group the League of the Righteous.

&#149 28 MAY: The men's families speak of their continuing hopes for their loved ones' release.

&#149 9 JUNE: The release of a leading Iraqi militant by US forces sparks hopes that the five Britons could be freed.

&#149 19 JUNE: The remains of Jason Creswell and Jason Swindlehurst are passed to Britain by Iraqi authorities.