Songs, banners, relatives greet freed hostages

Press, 2 July 1985, Page 10

Songs, banners, relatives greet freed hostages

NZPA-AP Frankfurt An American military airliner carrying the 39 freed American hostages touched down yesterday in West Germany to the cheers of fellow countrymen. The United States VicePresident, Mr George Bush, stood with relatives and friends of the former hostages, as well as a crowd of about 200 including American military personnel and their families. Many of them were waving small American flags in the chilly weather. The crowd carried various signs, including one that said: “To endure is not to tolerate."

Many also waved yellow ribbons, which became a symbol of the American hostage crisis in Iran that ended in January 1981. The United States Air Force C-141 transport plane touched down at 5.24 a.m. (4.25 p.m. NZT) at the Rhein-Main American Air Force Base, following the flight from Damascus, Syria. Some of the former hos-

tages smiled broadly as the crowd broke into a few lines of the popular song, “Bom in the U.S.A.” Many of the hostages stayed wrapped in their blankets on the chilly runway as Mr Bush spoke. “Our people are back. They’re safe, and soon they’ll be heading back to their families,” he said. “You’re back and America did not compromise her principles to get you back,” he added. Mr Bush tempered the joy of the occasion with a reminder that a young United States Navy man, Robert Dean Stetsem, had been killed by the hijackers. He reminded the group that other Americans continued to be held in Lebanon. Seven Americans, four Frenchmen, a Briton and an Iranian are being held by kidnappers in Beirut. “Even in the joy of your safe return civilised people everywhere condemn the actions of those whose criminal behaviour causes their ordeal to continue.” The United States Govern-

ment offered to take the 39 hostages to the United States military hospital in Wiesbaden, 40km west of Frankfurt, for medical checkups. The personnel at the military base hung a large banner reading, “Welcome Home” from a runway observation tower, and two teen-age girls held aloft signs reading, “Freedom,” and “Rhein-Main Welcomes You Home.”

The hostages, freed on Sunday in Beirut and driven to Damascus, Syria, for the flight home, had been held for 17 days by Lebanese Shi’ite Muslims in Beirut after the hijacking of a TWA aircraft on a flight from Athens to Rome.

Before going to Frankfurt from Paris Mr Bush said the United States had made no deals with either Syria or the Shi’ite Amal militia leader, Nabih Berri, to win freedom for the hostages.

. Asked twice in a taped television interview from Paris if he would categorically say, “no deals and no assurances” were given to

Damascus or Mr Berri, Mr Bush said: “Yes, that’s right.” In Beirut before the hostages began their journey by road to Damascus, Mr Berri had said he had received guarantees from Syria and the United States. The said these guarantees concerned the principal demand of the hijackers that Israel release 735 mostly Shi’ite prisoners held at Atlit.

Washington and Tel Aviv have repeatedly tried to deny any link between the TWA hostages and the Lebanese prisoners in Israel. The Israeli Defence Minister Mr Yitzak Rabin said there was no link and Israel had always intended to release the Lebanese prisoners when events permitted.

Asked about reports Israel planned to release the Lebanese prisoners in groups of 25, Mr Rabin said: “No comment.”