The forgotten seven still wait

Press, 6 July 1985, Page 18

The forgotten seven still wait

By

CHRISTOPHER V. CONNELL,

of Associated Press, in

Washington

Amid the euphoria in the United States over the release of the 39 TWA hostages, President Reagan is calling for an intensified international campaign to secure freedom for seven Americans and other kidnap victims still in Lebanon. Until those hostages also are freed, “this is no moment for celebration,” the President said on June 30. He asked those who helped in the crisis of the TWA passengers “to show even greater energy and commitment to secure the release of all others held captive in Lebanon.” Vice-President George Bush, travelling in Europe, said France and other countries whose citizens had been kidnapped in Beirut would be asked to join an international effort on their behalf. “The United States Government is not going to give up, not going to rest content, until the seven and

others are released too,” Mr Bush said. The Secretary of State, George Shultz, said the United States had “solid information” that the Syrian President, Hafez Assad, who helped win the release of the hijack victims, had been “working assiduously on the problem of the other hostages.” Mr Shultz, asked what would compel their kidnappers to release the Americans seized in the last 16 months, said, “I hope they will respond to the same considerations that must have led to the release of the 39 . . . Certainly if there is any humanness, that should be done and it should be done promptly.” The Secretary of State said that the Syrian Head of State “has put a considerable amount of willpower into it and we will be pushing hard.” Amid the massive effort to free the TWA captives, relatives of the

earlier United States prisoners have complained their loved ones had become the “forgotten hostages.” A senior administration official said, “Our diplomacy in the private exchanges from the beginning had always included the seven ... We wanted all of them back.” At the air force hospital in Wiesbaden, West Germany, where the newly-released hostages were taken for military checkups on their way home from Damascus, Syria, seven United States flags were added on Sunday to the 39 flying in tribute to the men from the hijacked jetliner. Amal Shi’ite leaders in Beirut, who arranged the release of the hostages from TWA Flight 847, said they had nothing to do with the earlier kidnappings and could not release the seven. Experts in congressional and diplomatic circles said, however, that President Assad could devise a deal to free the seven. Assad could, if he wants to, expend the political capital and

bring enough pressure to release them. The question is whether he will. I hope he does,” a United States Senator, Pat Leahy, who is vice-chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said recently on a “Meet the Press” television programme. Samuel Lewis, a former United States Ambassador to Israel, said an Assad-sponsored effort on behalf of the seven would be hampered by his lack of direct control over the captors, believed to be a Shi’ite faction called Hezbollah, or “Party of God.” Peggy Say, whose brother, Terry Anderson, was kidnapped by gunmen on a Beirut street on March 16, remained hopeful even after it was apparent the hostage deal failed to include the American journalist. “They expected Terry to come out; somehow he was lost in the shuffle with the other six,” she said. “But they know where he is, and they’ve been able to speak, apparently, to his captors through whatever means.”

Anderson, aged 37, is chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press. The other United States captives are William Buckley, 56, a United States Embassy political officer, Rev. Benjamin Weir, 61, a missionary; Peter Kilburn, 60, a librarian at the American University of Beirut; Rev. Martin Lawrence Jenco, 50, a Catholic relief official; David Jacobsen, 54, administrator of the American University Hospital; and Thomas Sutherland, acting dean of agriculture at the American University of Beirut. Four Frenchmen also are being held in Lebanon: two are diplomats, Marcel Carton and Marcel Fontaine, held since March; one a journalist, Jean-Paul Kauffmann;. and the fourth, a scientist, Michel Seurat, kidnapped near Beirut Airport on May 21. Nabih Berri, leader of the Shi’ite militia Amal, has said that Kauffmann and Mr Seurat will be freed within a couple of days but there has been no word on the diplomats. c