TONY Blair, the Prime Minister, said last night the government would "immediately respond" if the kidnappers of British hostage Kenneth Bigley made contact, after a distressing new video showed the 62-year-old captive caged and sobbing inside a wire pen. Downing Street moved quickly to stress that the government's stance on hostage-taking had not changed, and that it would neither negotiate with, nor make deals with the terrorists. Asked by journalists at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton whether the government had any contact with the hostage-takers, Mr Blair said: "We can't make contact with them. They have made no attempt to have any contact with us at all. "Of course if they did make contact it would be something we would immediately respond to," he added.
Mr Bigley was shown sitting in a tiny metal pen, clad in an orange jumpsuit of the type issued to detainees at Guantänamo Bay. Above his head was a banner proclaiming the name of the Tawid and Jihad group, which has been holding him since he was snatched with two Americans on 16 September. His words were barely audible, but the al-Jazeera television network, which aired the video, quoted him accusing Mr Blair of lying and of doing nothing to help. "He doesn't care about me. I am just one, just one person," Mr Bigley said, before breaking down in tears. "Please, please, help me. I'm begging you, I'm begging you to speak, to push," he was heard to say. The TV network said Mr Bigley had also accused the Prime Minister of failing to negotiate his release, and had urged Mr Blair to try to secure the release of Iraqi women prisoners to save his life.
The possibility of negotiation was flatly ruled out by one of the Iraqi interim government's most senior diplomats. Samir Sumaida'ie, the Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations, told The Scotsman: "The policy of the Iraqi government is not to negotiate with terrorists." The release of the video came amid growing speculation that a $1million ransom was paid to secure the release of two Italian hostages. |