Ken Bigley, the British engineer who has been held hostage in Iraq for two weeks, appeared in chains on a video on Wednesday night begging for his life but saying for the first time that his kidnappers did not want to kill him.
Bigley (62) appeared haggard but unhurt. He frequently broke down and sobbed as he spoke, at times grasping his head in his hand.
”My captors don’t want to kill me,” he said. But moments later he added: ”I am begging you for my life. Have some compassion. Please.” There was no way of verifying when the video was taken, but his family took it as proof that Bigley was still alive.
The brief footage, obtained and broadcast by the Arabic television network al-Jazeera, showed the Briton sitting hunched on the floor in a shiny orange jumpsuit. His hands and feet were shackled with a metal chain that hung round his neck and he sat in a cramped, steel mesh cage built against a brick wall.
Above him hung a black banner printed with a sun and the name of the Tawhid and Jihad group, led by the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. In the corner of the tape was the revolving logo of the group, which has appeared in several previous videos.
”I want to inform my British citizens that there is no progress,” Bigley said. ”Tony Blair is lying. He doesn’t care about me. I am just one person … Mr Blair says he won’t negotiate with terrorists. I’m begging you, I’m begging you to speak, to push.”
He repeated the kidnappers’ demands that the US release all women from Iraqi jails. ”Have some compassion for the female prisoners,” he said.
Blair on Wednesday night issued an open invitation to the kidnappers to make contact with the government to save the life of the Briton. Hours after the release of the latest video, the prime minister said he would respond ”immediately” if the kidnappers made contact.
Speaking at the Labour party conference on the way to a reception hosted by the Muslim Council of Britain, Blair said he was ”sickened” by the behaviour of the kidnappers.
But in what may be seen as a slight change of tack he said: ”We cannot make contact with them and they have made no attempt to have any contact with us at all. If they did it would be something we would immediately respond to. But it is impossible for us to make any contact with them. We are doing everything we can.”
Clearly moved by the latest video, Blair added: ”I feel sickened by what has happened. I think people know what they are trying to do. I feel desperately sorry for the Bigley family and we are doing absolutely everything we can.”
Government sources played down the significance of Blair’s remarks, saying he had not breached the government’s policy of refusing to negotiate with terrorists.
Blair had simply highlighted the government’s willingness to open a channel of communication, they said.
Bigley’s relatives seized on the video as a positive development, but they were distressed at the conditions in which he was being held. Speaking from his home in the Netherlands, Bigley’s brother Paul said the ”appalling” footage increased the need for immediate action from the prime minister.
”He’s not a broken man,” he said. ”He is obviously an afraid man and he is worn out. His faculties are all there but he is worn out.
”I think he’s built up a sort of rapport with these guys such that they are not exactly having a drink or playing cards together but they are talking sense together and that’s the reason why the man’s alive.”
Bigley’s son, Craig, and his brother Philip thanked the kidnappers for showing that he was still alive.
Through a statement released by the British Foreign Office, they added: ”Please could you pass on once more our love and thoughts to him. We, as a family, feel that the ultimate decision to release him rests with you, the people who are holding him. We once again ask you, please show mercy to my father and release him.”
The family are attempting to protect Bigley’s mother, Lil (86) who is in hospital after collapsing at home for a second time, from any added strain.
Bigley’s plight contrasted with euphoric scenes in Italy over the release of two Italian aid workers, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, but questions are being raised about the $1-million ransom reportedly paid. Though the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, did not confirm the payment, Gustavo Selva, chairperson of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee, admitted that the government had given in to the kidnappers’ demands.
”The lives of the girls was the most important thing,” Selva told France’s RTL radio. ”In principle, we shouldn’t give in to blackmail but this time we had to, although it’s a dangerous path to take because, obviously, it could encourage others to take hostages.”
The conservative newspaper Il Foglio published a comment headlined Let’s Not Celebrate. The text read: ”That is called ransom and it will fuel the arms trade and recruitment for the war against peace and democracy in that part of the world.”
Bigley was seized with two American colleagues at dawn from their poorly guarded house in a suburb of Baghdad. The three men appeared on a video blindfolded and kneeling before masked gunmen. Within days the two Americans, Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley, had been murdered.
At least 30 foreign hostages have been killed since the kidnapping crisis began six months ago. But some reports suggest two French journalists, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, may be released within days after lengthy negotiations. – Guardian Unlimited Â