Family's plea goes out in Baghdad

Iraqis have distributed 50,000 pamphlets in Baghdad, pleading for the life of British hostage Kenneth Bigley, whose two United States colleagues have been beheaded by his captors, a British source said last night.

The leaflets, handed out in the capital's Mansour district, where the British engineer and his two American colleagues were taken at gunpoint from their home a week ago, included a heart-rending plea from his loved ones, the source said.

Iraqis handing out the tracts in Arabic declined to give their names.

"This is a personal appeal from a family whose son is missing. A family man called Ken Bigley is being held somewhere in your community," a translation read.

"We are Ken's family. Ken's mother, brothers, wife and child love him dearly. We are appealing for your help."

The pamphlet also provides a local number to phone in information.

His fellow hostages - American contractors Jack Hensley and Eugene "Jack" Armstrong - were beheaded this week by their captors Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War), the organisation of Islamic radical Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.

The al-Qaeda linked captors have threatened to kill 62-year-old Bigley unless all women detained by the US-led coalition in Iraq are released.

Bigley's plight took its toll on his family yesterday and piled more pressure on British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Bigley's 86-year-old mother, Elizabeth, collapsed at home shortly after taping a plea for mercy.

"He is only a working man who wants to support his family," she said, breaking down in tears. "Please show mercy to Ken and send him home to me alive. His family needs him and I need him."

Bigley's brother Paul added to the pressure. "My mum has been taken to the hospital," he said by telephone from Amsterdam, adding she had been put on a cardiograph machine. "I was fearing it. We've had a double whammy. She's had a heart problem for a long time."

Last night, Eight telecom employees became the latest victims of Iraq's kidnapping epidemic. Two Egyptian engineers, working for Egypt's telecom giant Orascom, were snatched at gunpoint from their central Baghdad office, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

The employee told AFP that a further six technicians working for the local Iraqna operator licensed by Orascom were snatched near Fallujah, west of Baghdad.

The abductions were the latest of nearly 150 kidnappings of foreigners reported in Iraq since April 2004

There was no word last night on the whereabouts of Bigley. Britain says it holds no women prisoners and will not negotiate. The US is holding two female weapons scientists and says they are the only women in its custody in Iraq.

The Bigley family's public displays of anguish have put renewed pressure on Blair, whose popularity and trust ratings have been hurt over the war. Family members have criticised the war and Blair personally for failing to free Bigley.

In a video released by his captors on Thursday, Bigley himself pleaded with the Prime Minister to meet the kidnappers' demands and save his life.

But Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said: "We can't get into a situation of bargaining with terrorists."

Straw later told the United Nations General Assembly Britain was doing everything it could to secure Bigley's release.

Blair phoned the family yesterday for the second time in two days.

Bigley is half Irish, and the family have also asked the Irish Government to help.

The interim Iraqi Government said Prime Minister Iyad Allawi was not willing to allow the release of the two Iraqi women in US custody.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the murders would not change US policy of not negotiating with hostage-takers.

"We deeply regret the loss of these two men who went to help the Iraqi people. And my heart goes out to their families when I consider the manner of their death and I extend deepest condolences to the families.

"One thing we have learned over time is that you can't negotiate with these kinds of terrorists. You can't give in to them because all it does is incentivise them to do it again, and therefore our policy will remain unchanged."

In Bigley's home city of Liverpool, residents held candlelit vigils. Neighbourhood children were collecting money to send flowers to the elderly Mrs Bigley in hospital.

In Rome Italy's Government tried to reassure an anguished nation that two women hostages in Iraq were most likely still alive, saying an Islamist group's claim to have killed them was unreliable.

Militants' claims are difficult to authenticate. Many website bulletin boards are open to anyone to post entries.

- REUTERS


Herald Feature: Iraq