We will hunt down David Haines’s killers - Cameron

BRITAIN stands ready to take “whatever steps are necessary” to help an international push to destroy the “evil” extremist group behind the murder of a Scottish aid worker, David Cameron said.
David Cameron says IS are monsters. Picture: APDavid Cameron says IS are monsters. Picture: AP
David Cameron says IS are monsters. Picture: AP

The Prime Minister hailed David Haines as a “British hero” and vowed to “hunt down those responsible and bring them to justice no matter how long it takes” after Islamic State (IS) posted a video of the beheading of the father of two.

In an emotional statement after chairing the UK government’s Cobra emergency committee to discuss the killing, the Prime Minister said the brutal crime would “strengthen our resolve” to take on the threat posed by the Islamic extremists.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mr Cameron said British people would be “sickened” that a fellow citizen could have carried out such an act and urged action to drain from society the “poison” of radicalisation, insisting IS, also known as Isil or Isis, “are not Muslims, they are monsters”.

He remained tight-lipped on Britain’s role in the planned escalation of the military offensive in Iraq and Syria being co-ordinated by the US. Officials made clear there were no immediate plans to recall parliament to discuss the use of British forces.But while he ruled out ground troops, the Prime Minister left the door open to air strikes, a course favoured by some MPs and former military chiefs.

“The murder of David Haines at the hands of Isil will not leave Britain to shirk our responsibility with our allies to deal with the threat that this organisation poses. It must strengthen our resolve,” he said.

IS released the footage showing the 44-year-old, who was brought up in Perth, being murdered by a militant, who appears to speak with a British accent, on Saturday. The clip includes a threat to kill a second British hostage, named by the Foreign Office as aid worker Alan Henning.

Mike Haines said his brother, who previously served in the RAF and worked for the UN, was “just another bloke” who was “most alive and enthusiastic” in his humanitarian roles and will be “missed terribly”.

He added: “Radicalisation remains the biggest threat to the wholesale safety of every person in the world. It is a human issue and it is in our everyday lives.

“I have become aware of a number of verses in the Koran that I feel are particularly apt at this time: ‘The sense good and evil cannot be equal. Repel the evil with something… better’.

“The Muslim faith is not to blame for Isil, nor is it the fault of people of Middle Eastern descent. The attraction of complete control and the use of terror as an implement of operational control has a widespread appeal to many disenfranchised throughout society, as you can see by the amount of foreign nationals fighting for Isil.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

David Haines had a teenage daughter in Scotland from a previous marriage and a four-year-old daughter, Athea, in Croatia with his present wife. His parents live in Ayr.

The ACTED aid agency Mr Haines was working for when he was taken hostage in Syria has called his murder a “crime against humanity”.

ACTED said: “The horrible assassination of David goes against all humanitarian principles and is a crime against humanity.”

The video begins with an interview clip of the Prime Minister and then shows Mr Haines dressed in orange overalls and kneeling in front of a man holding a knife.

In a short statement, the victim states that Mr Cameron is “entirely responsible for my execution” because he “entered voluntarily into a coalition with the United States against the Islamic State”.

The militant, who appears to be the same individual featured in previous beheading videos, says: “Playing the role of the obedient lapdog Cameron, will only drag you and your people into another bloody and unwinnable war.”

British Muslim communities reacted with outrage. Dr Shuja Shafi, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “British Muslims condemn unreservedly the murder of our fellow Briton, David Haines. “These extremists claim to be acting in the name of Islam. But there is nothing in our faith that condones such behaviour.”

Pledging his support to Britain, the US President Barack Obama yesterday said America “stands shoulder to shoulder with our close friend”. Australia pledged to contribute 600 troops and up to ten military aircraft to the campaign.

PROFILE

Soldier turned worker for victims of conflict

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

David Cawthorne Haines helped those in need in some of the most hostile environments in the world.

The Scots-educated aid worker spent 11 years in the military before going to work for charities in Libya and South Sudan during periods of extreme violence.

He was in Libya during its civil war in 2011, working as head of mission for Handicap International, which helps disabled people in poverty and conflict zones.

He spoke to MediaGlobal News while there about work his team were doing to prevent children being killed or maimed playing with unexploded ordnance such as mortars and cluster bombs.

“Only two and a half weeks ago in Ajdabiya a child took one of these items home, and unfortunately the father decided to have a look at it and it exploded,” he told the news site.

The following year he went to work in South Sudan, which has been wracked by internal conflict since it gained independence in 2011.

He worked for the charity Nonviolent Peaceforce, which sends unarmed civilian peacekeepers to conflict zones. In a statement it said he acted as a “non-partisan unarmed civilian peace facilitator” in the African state but was not working for them in the Middle East.

“We join with people around the world in pleas, thoughts and calls for his safe release,” it said on its website.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mr Haines’ LinkedIn page said he attended Perth Academy. He then held “various positions covering security and threat assessments in a number of different countries” in the military between 1988 and 1999. He later combined charity work with working for private companies, most recently based in Croatia as consultant director of an Italian-Croat catering manufacturer called Astraea.

ANALYSIS

Jane Kinninmont: ‘Broadcasting the murder of a Westerner, horrible as it is, is a rational part of IS strategy’

The latest filmed beheading of a Briton by Islamic State (IS) fighters may encourage British public support for military action against them. But it changes little about the threat the group poses, or the best way of dealing with it.

IS is trying to turn itself from a group of fighters into a state. It has taken control of substantial territories in Iraq and Syria, and the oil, agricultural and other economic resources within them. But it is still small and poor compared to the Muslim and Western governments that it wants to take on.

Last week the CIA estimated it had up to 31,000 fighters. That would be less than 0.002 per cent of the populations of Iraq and Syria.

Against larger enemies, the group depends on using the tactics of “asymmetric warfare,” a core element of which is to use your opponent’s strength against them.

For example, faced with air strikes, the logic of asymmetric warfare is to disappear into the civilian population – relying on the airstrikes to kill civilians, generate massive anger and bring in more recruits.

Broadcasting the murder of a Westerner, horrible as it is, is a rational part of that strategy. IS will see the attention it is getting as an indication that it is having an impact on Western policy, and that it is the most important of the militant groups around the world that it competes with for money and recruits.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

If the reaction leads to the deaths of many more Muslim civilians in Iraq, or generates Islamophobia here in the UK, this could boost the IS narrative of a war between Christians and Muslims.

In reality most Muslims are against groups like IS. Most of the people it has killed were Iraqis and Syrians.

Last week’s anti-IS summit, held in Saudi Arabia on 11 September, brought together ten Arab governments – including some that are normally rivals but which see IS as a common threat.

Politically, the next steps are for Barack Obama and David 
Cameron to work with the 
Arab states, the new Iraqi government and Turkey to isolate IS and crack down on its recruits and funding, and with the UN to revive a peace process for Syria, where some 200,000 people have been killed in the past three years.

• Jane Kinninmont is a senior research fellow and deputy head of the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House

SEE ALSO

Related topics: