Training | 2009.06.22
Bodies of British hostages identified
Gordon Brown sends condolences to families of Jason Creswell and Jason Swindlehurst after foreign office says bodies \'highly likely\' to be theirs
Gordon Brown today sent his condolences to the families of the kidnapped Britons Jason Creswell and Jason Swindlehurst after the Foreign Office said it was highly likely theirs were the two bodies handed to UK officials in Iraq on Friday.
Brown called on their killers to release the remaining three of the five British hostages taken in Baghdad in May 2007 "immediately". He said he was working to secure their release "as soon as possible".
He said the families of the two victims had been given "the worst possible news after two years of very anxious waiting".
The foreign office said the next of kin of Creswell and Swindlehurst had been informed.
"Our thoughts are with [the families] at this sad time, and we ask that the media allow them privacy to deal with this news," a spokeswoman said.
"We continue to do everything we can towards the safe release of the other hostages."
Creswell, from Glasgow, and Swindlehurst, from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, were believed to be two of four men who were guards for the computer programmer Peter Moore.
The five contractors were seized by about 40 armed men, wearing police uniforms, at the Iraqi finance ministry.
The four men kidnapped with Moore were employed as security guards by the Canadian security firm GardaWorld.
The two bodies were identified by a British police forensics team that has been in Iraq training police forces. They are likely to be flown to London as early as Tuesday.
"This is deeply sad and distressing news, in particular for the families who have been waiting so long to know what has happened to their loved ones," the shadow foreign secretary, William Hague, said.
"We must still not give up hope for some of the hostages, or relax the constant efforts to bring them home."
Last February, a video broadcast by the Dubai-based al-Arabiya television channel showed a bearded and tired-looking Moore asking Brown to free nine Iraqis in exchange for the British hostages.
He said: "All I want is to leave this place. I tell Gordon Brown the matter is simple: release their prisoners so we can go."
Responsibility for the kidnapping was at first pinned on Moqtada al-Sadr\'s Mahdi Army militia.
It was thought to be retaliation for the killing by British forces of a militia commander in Basra, southern Iraq, a week earlier.
Throughout two years of largely secret talks, British, US and Iraqi officials have denied directly negotiating with the hostage takers, a group of Shia Islamist extremists who aim to exchange prisoners.
However, the release of a leading Iraqi militant by US forces earlier this month had sparked fresh hopes that the kidnapped Britons could be freed.
The US military handed Shia insurgent Laith al-Khazali over to the Iraqi authorities on 6 June.
Al-Khazali is a senior member of Asaib Ahl al-Haq –the League of the Righteous – which has been linked to the kidnapping.
Captain Doug Beattie, who recently retired from service with the Royal Irish Regiment, said the bodies were a "signal" to the British government and the security company which employed the two dead captives.
The evidence would suggest "deep, deep negotiations" are ongoing behind the scenes, Beattie, who served in Iraq and was later decorated for bravery in Afghanistan, added.
Yesterday, the foreign secretary, David Miliband, described the developments as "distressing" and said the British authorities had worked with the Iraqi authorities with the hope that the men would be released alive and well.
"In this case we, all of us, have clearly failed to achieve that goal in respect of two bodies whose identities we cannot yet confirm," he said.
"It\'s very important that we continue to work for the confirmation of those identities and finally for the benefit of the other hostages."
Earlier today, the Iraqi government moved to distance itself from the handing over of the bodies, which Miliband, said yesterday had been facilitated by Iraqi officials.
Ali al-Dabbagh, an Iraqi government spokesman, said: "We are not a participant in these negotiations, but we knew there has been indirect contact to learn the fate of these hostages. I deny what David Miliband said about the Iraqi government handing over the bodies of the hostages."
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun[...]ish-hostages-bodies-identified
