Hostage pleads for his life
2004-09-22 22:51
Cairo - A man who identified himself as British hostage Kenneth Bigley appeared on a videotape posted on an Islamic website on Wednesday sobbing and repeatedly pleading with British Prime Minister Tony Blair to help save his life.
"Mr Blair, I am nothing to you. Here's just one person living in the United Kingdom, that's all, with a family like you, like your family, your children, your boys, your wife," the speaker said in the grainy video.
"Please, you can help. I know you can," he said, addressing the British prime minister.
The speaker wore an orange jumpsuit, the kind that kidnappers put on their hostages before killing them.
He sobbed in the middle of his message and wiped his forehead.
A banner of the Tawhid and Jihad militant group hung on the wall behind him.
In London, Blair's Downing Street office said it was aware of reports of the video plea.
A difficult situation
"The foreign office is looking into it and is keeping Mr Bigley's family fully informed," said a spokesperson.
"As the foreign secretary said earlier, we continue to do all we can... people understand how difficult the situation is."
Bigley, 62, and two American hostages working for a construction company were kidnapped from their house in Baghdad last week.
The militant group of Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Tawhid and Jihad, said it kidnapped the three and threatened to kill them within 48 hours if all Iraqi women prisoners held in Iraq are not released.
The decapitated bodies of Americans Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley were later found.
Speaking earlier on Wednesday before the videotape surfaced, British foreign secretary Jack Straw said his government was doing everything it could to secure Bigley's release, but suggested there was little hope of saving him.
"We continue to do everything we can to secure Kenneth Bigley's safe release, but it would be idle to pretend that there's a great deal of hope," Straw told reporters in New York.
It could not be verified when the videotape was made.
The speaker in the videotape that surfaced on Wednesday started with the phrase: "To Mr Blair, my name is Ken Bigley, from Liverpool."
"I think this is possibly my last chance," the speaker said.
Are asking for their wives
"Please help me see my wife, and my son and my mother. I don't want to die. "
"Please, please release the female prisoners that are held in Iraqi prisons," the speaker said.
"Please help them. I need you to help me, Mr Blair because you are the only person now on God's earth that I can speak to.
"Please, please help me see my wife, who cannot go on without me," the speaker said.
"These people are not asking for the world," the speaker said.
"They are asking for their wives and beloved children. I wish you could talk to me.
"I have no political aims. I made a mistake in coming here. Please help me Mr Blair, you can."
- AP