Family Pleads for Release of British Hostage in Iraq – Iranian Agency
Text of report in English by Iranian news agency IRNA website
London, 7 December, IRNA: The family of British hostage Norman Kember Wednesday [7 December] pleaded for the release of the 74- year old peace activist in Iraq after Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that the UK could not meet the demands of his kidnappers.
“This is an extremely worrying, stressful time for all of Norman’s family. We are praying with people from all faiths for the safe release of Norman and his friends,” his relatives said in a statement issued by the Foreign Office in London.
Earlier Straw told journalists in Brussels that his government was ‘doing all we can in what is a desperate situation’ and was ‘always ready to listen’.
“We are aware of these so-called demands which no government could meet,” he said. “I am afraid I have nothing further to report. We work and we pray for a satisfactory outcome,” he added.
Kember was kidnapped with two Canadians and an American on November 26 in Baghdad where they were working with a Christian peace group.
An Iraqi group calling itself the “Swords of Truth” has threatened to kill the hostages unless Iraqi detainees are released by Thursday.
On Wednesday, new footage of an extended video released last Friday further showed the British hostage urging Prime Minister Tony Blair to pull UK troops out of Iraq.
In their statement, Kember’s family said they were grateful for all the help, messages and assistance people from the peace groups and others from all backgrounds are giving.
“We especially welcome and deeply appreciate the support of the 25 Muslim authorities around the world, who have called on the people holding Norman and his three friends to release these innocent hostages immediately,” they said.
Their detention, the statement said, can ‘only harm the just cause of the Iraqi people and their legitimate struggle for freedom and independence’.
Kember’s wife said that her husband ‘doesn’t believe in violence and neither does his family’.
“We believe as he does that everyone should live in peace. That is why Norman went to Iraq, because he wanted the Iraqi people to know that there are many people who are sorry for all their suffering,” she said.