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Hostage families face agonising wait as body is identified
Chris Laker03.09.09
The families of the British hostages kidnapped in Baghdad faced an anxious wait today to discover the identity of a body handed to Iraqi authorities.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was "deeply saddened" that the body, believed to be a hostage, had been passed to the British embassy in Baghdad.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the "distressing news" would not diminish the Government's determination to secure the release of the remaining hostages.
It is understood that the body will be that of either Alan McMenemy and Alec MacLachlan, whose families were told by the Government six weeks ago they were "very likely" to be dead.
The two were captured in 2007 along with fellow security guards Jason Swindlehurst and Jason Creswell, whose bodies were found earlier this year, and the man they were guarding, IT consultant Peter Moore.
Mr Miliband said he believed Mr Moore was still alive.
In a statement, Mr Miliband said: "Hostage-taking is never justified. Britain's long-standing policy is well known: we talk to anyone who might be able to help but we do not make substantive concessions to hostage-takers.
"This is not an easy policy to follow - sometimes it is agonising - but it is right.
"I renew my call on behalf of the British government and the British people to those holding the hostages, to return them to their loved ones."
A Downing Street spokesman said a process was "now under way to urgently establish identity" of the body.
He said: "The Prime Minister is in close touch with the Iraqi prime minister about this case.
"He will leave no stone unturned in the Government's efforts to secure the release of the remaining hostages.
"The Prime Minister's thoughts are with their families at this extremely difficult time."
The five Britons - Mr Moore and his four bodyguards - were seized by about 40 armed men wearing police uniforms at the finance ministry in Baghdad on May 29 2007.
The bodies of Mr Swindlehurst, from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, and Mr Creswell, originally from Glasgow, were handed over to Baghdad officials in June.
The families of security guards Mr McMenemy, from Glasgow, and Mr MacLachlan, from Llanelli, south Wales, were told by the Foreign Office in July that their loved ones were "very likely" to have died.
The kidnappers, calling themselves the Islamic Shiite Resistance in Iraq, have issued several videos featuring the captives and making demands.
In February last year a video broadcast by Dubai-based TV station Al-Arabiya showed a bearded and tired-looking Mr Moore asking Mr Brown to free nine Iraqis in exchange for the British hostages.
He said: "All I want is to leave this place. I tell Gordon Brown the matter is simple: release their prisoners so we can go."
Last night Mr Moore's father Graham said he was holding out hope the body was not that of his son.
Speaking from his home in Wigston, Leicestershire, Mr Moore said: "There's always that little bit of uncertainty but the information that has come out of Iraq suggested that they separated Peter from the others early on. We and his friends are just trying to carry on for Peter."
A spokesman for GardaWorld, which employed four of the men, said: "We're continuing to try to do everything that we can, working with all of the authorities involved for the recovery of these individuals."
Reader views (1)
So at the advice of the Foreign Office there has been a news black-out about these men, then their predicament was played down and their names kept secret, then their bodies turn up one by one because David Miliband won't negotiate with hostage-takers. Negotiating with hostage takers need not involve conceding money/political demands - it can be as simple as talking to them. I can see why the Government took this line of inaction - but what was in it for the families of the hostages? A hostage recently killed in another country had his throat cut after the deadline passed without Miliband or the Foreign Office even bothering to make a statement - it gave the impression they'd even forgotten there was a deadline passing! If you talk, you might make bridges: if you ignore people they have no choice left but to make a grandiose gesture.
- Roz, France
