Training | 2009.09.03
Iraq body is abducted Briton, says PM
Gordon Brown announces that DNA tests confirm remains delivered to Baghdad embassy are those of abducted man
Forensic experts have formally identified the body delivered to the British embassy in Baghdad on Wednesday as Alec MacLachlan, one of five Britons abducted in Iraq two years ago.
The identification was made after DNA samples were matched to samples from MacLachlan\'s family. He is the third of five hostages to be returned dead. A fourth Briton, Alan McMenemy, is also believed to have been killed.
Only one of the five hostages, computer programmer Peter Moore, is thought to be still alive.
Gordon Brown said tonight: "It\'s with the deepest regret that the body passed to the British embassy is now discovered to be that of Alec MacLachlan. My thoughts, and I believe the thoughts of the whole country, are with the family at this time of great grief.
"No family should have to endure what they have gone through, the loss through the hostage-taking then the period of silence and not knowing what is happening and now to find that their loved one is lost.
"We are demanding of the hostage takers that they now give us information about the whereabouts of Alan McMenemy and return Peter Moore, who we still believe to be alive, as soon as possible.
"We will pursue these hostage takers, there is no justification for what they have done and we are working with the Iraqi government at every point to ensure that we get information to the relatives, we get the return of the others and at the same time we bring the hostage takers to justice. That is what every family should expect of us and that is what we are going to do."
The kidnappers are from a Shia militia group called the Righteous League , which is campaigning for political legitimacy in Iraq and is expected to hand over the body of McMenemy before returning the apparent sole survivor, Moore, ahead of national elections in January.
Members of the Righteous League have recently been hosted by the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, while the group\'s senior leaders have openly discussed the fate of the hostages with Maliki\'s senior advisers.
Negotiations to win the return of the men have been conducted at arm\'s length through middlemen, some of whom have no connection to the kidnappers.
The fate of Moore, who was in Iraq working on a training contract with the finance ministry, is tied to the release from prison of a young Righteous League cadre with leadership aspirations, Qais al-Ghazali . He is a 25-year-old sheikh and former understudy to the Shia cleric Muqtadr al-Sadr. He has been in American custody in Iraq for almost three years after being accused of playing a lead role in organising the ambush of five US soldiers in January 2007 in the shrine city of Karbala.
During his detention, both his status and his following have grown, and he is now set to become the apprentice who eclipsed both his masters, al-Sadr and current Righteous League leader Akram al-Kabi.
Both men are in Iran, along with Ghazali\'s younger brother, Laith al-Ghazali, who was freed from US custody in June.His release was thought to have been part of a process that led to the first two British bodies being handed over. Since then a number of Righteous League detainees have been freed. However, Britain, the US and Iraq are anxious to avoid the perception that the hostages have been returned as part of a trade.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep[...]tish-body-iraq-alec-maclachlan
