Bigley: Don't have false hopes

2004-09-26 19:10

London - Prime Minister Tony Blair warned on Sunday against "raising false hopes" for a British engineer held hostage in Iraq, as the crisis cast a long shadow over the start of his party's annual conference.

Kenneth Bigley, 62, was abducted in the Iraqi capital Baghdad 10 days ago alongside two American colleagues who have since been executed. Bigley appealed directly to Blair to intervene in an Internet video broadcast last week.

In an interview with BBC television, Blair was asked how he had felt when he heard Bigley's appeal.

"My first reaction is the reaction of anyone, which is real sympathy for him, anger at how he is being held by those people and an earnest hope that, despite all the difficulties, we can do something," Blair said.

"But I just don't know if we are able to or not. There is no point in raising false hopes because of the nature of the people we're dealing with.

"We're doing everything we properly and legitimately can," Blair said from Brighton, on England's south coast, where his ruling Labour Party began its annual conference, which runs until Thursday.

The British government has ruled out negotiating with the kidnappers.

Bigley was taken hostage on September 16, along with US colleagues Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong who have since been executed, by Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War), led by Al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.

An Islamist website has declared that Bigley too has been murdered, although Britain's foreign office said the website was not credible.

Bigley's family, including his son, his brothers, his Thai wife in Bangkok and his mother in Liverpool, northwest England, have issued a series of emotional appeals for his safe release.

The hostage crisis threatens to overshadow this week's annual Labour Party get-together, where domestic issues had been top of the agenda ahead of general elections expected in May or June next year.

- AFP