Bigley ordeal 'repugnant'

2004-09-30 17:01

London - Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi denounced on Thursday as "repugnant" the ordeal of British hostage Kenneth Bigley at the hands of Islamic extremists, and criticised the way the media has covered the story.

"It is repugnant to take an innocent man such as Kenneth Bigley and to use him as a political pawn in this way," he said in a speech at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies.

But the interim Iraqi premier added that journalists who have put the 62-year-old engineer, seized September 16 in Baghdad, in the global spotlight also need to think "long and hard" about how they may have helped fuel more hostage crises.

"Can we justify showing videos of hostages or groups of armed and hooded men?

"Is this not exactly the publicity that the terrorists seek? Should we play their game?" he asked

"We should all be asking if, by doing this, we not only make it not only harder to resolve the cases we deal with today, but invite more cases for tomorrow," Allawi said.

Elections

In his speech, the Iraqi leader pledged to hold elections on time and urged Western states to help financially and militarily in the reconstruction of his devastated country.

Bigley appeared in a video on Wednesday on Al-Jazeera satellite television channel, bound and huddled inside a cage, pleading with British Prime Minister Tony Blair to help save him.

Bigley is being held by the Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War) group of suspected al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.

Two US colleagues seized with him were beheaded last week.

His ordeal has received substantial media coverage in Britain and abroad, with his family - including his elderly mother in Liverpool and his wife in Thailand - making emotional appeals for his release.

- AFP