Hassan's body not yet found

2004-11-18 09:10

Sydney - Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Thursday condemned the "inhumane" hostage takers believed to have killed missing aid worker Margaret Hassan for ignoring a plea from her family to return her body.

Howard said it was generally accepted that Hassan was dead but backed away from an earlier statement to parliament that the mutilated body of a white woman found in the Iraqi city of Fallujah this week appeared to be Hassan's.

"The body has not been returned by those who killed her," Howard told reporters when asked to clarify his earlier statement.

"The point I'm making was that it's accepted by the British government, the Irish government and the family, particularly the husband who made a very emotional appeal for the return of the body."

Body has not been identified

The body of a blonde-haired woman with her legs and arms cut off and throat slit was found on Sunday lying on a street in Fallujah, a notorious Iraqi enclave for hostage-takers. It has not been identified.

Howard said there was every indication that Hassan was the woman who appeared in a video received by Al-Jazeera on Tuesday showing an armed man shooting at a blind-folded woman.

Hassan, 59, head of Care International's Iraq operations, was seized in Baghdad on October 19 while on her way to work. She was married to an Iraqi, held British, Irish and Iraqi citizenship.

Howard extended his sympathy to Hassan's family over the "despicable" killing.

"The inhumanity of Margaret Hassan's killers passes description. Such people are to be condemned without the slightest hesitation or qualification," he said. - AFP

- SAPA