Category: News
Date: 29.06.2005
Printable version
The family of British hostage Ken Bigley, murdered by
Abu Musa'ab al-Zarkawi, speak to Panorama
for the first time about their ordeal.
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Panorama: Hostage
will be on 大象传媒 ONE on Wednesday 29 June at 9.00pm.
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Panorama has interviewed seven surviving hostages -
including two Iraqi hostages who witnessed a beheading - and the families
of three hostages who were killed.
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Two hundred and seventy-three foreign hostages - from
37 different countries - have been seized in Iraq since the insurgency
flared with the siege of Fallujah last April.
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Twenty-five different Islamic militant groups claim
to have been involved in hostage-taking.
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Many thousands of Iraqis have also been taken hostage
- forcing an exodus of skilled educated people out of the country and
endangering Iraq's future.
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Panorama examines this new form of warfare which exploits
individual civilians and uses as its tools television and the internet.
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It's a weapon the insurgents have deployed against the
military might of the West - to devastating effect.
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In the programme, reporter Jane Corbin interviews
Phil Bigley, Ken's brother, who reveals that two private videos were
received through an intermediary in Baghdad - the first very different
from the 'terror videos' of Ken in an orange jumpsuit and in a cage.
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And Ken's mother Lil appeals for the return of his body
so the family can have a burial and find closure. Jane also interviews
Ken's older brother Stan.
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Says Phil: "We received some private videos that were
channelled through the Embassy in Baghdad and through the Foreign Office
and to ourselves.
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"He was dressed in normal clothing, he was clean shaven,
he was a lot more relaxed. in possibly an area sitting near a dining
table, or certainly completely different circumstances than the previous
terror videos... to open a potential dialogue."
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A second private video was brought to the Embassy -
it showed Ken terrified, pleading for his life - and it gave another
24-hour deadline.
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"It switched everything round and it brought us full
circle again. This was more of a definite horror and a reality that
there's no way out of this, there's absolutely no way out."
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"And the Foreign Office asked if we'd want to respond
to that and I can recall that we sat and decided what more can we say?
How many times can you beg?"
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Says Ken's mother Lil: "I had to be strong for the
rest of the family, mainly my sons and the rest of the family, and it
did affect everyone.
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"The inevitable happened and he died - but no matter
what we say now, nothing will bring Ken back. But the sad part of it
is, we haven't had a burial; we can't find his body. And that would
really put an end to the sad story."
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Adds Ken's brother Stan: "The intermediary was told
that our Ken had been buried; and in the future, we may get to know
the place where he was buried. When they felt it was safe to say this,
now when it's safe - I don't know. We would love it to come out so we
can get his remains back."
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Also in the programme is Noriaki Imai, one of three
Japanese hostages in the first group of captives taken last April from
a garage near Fallujah as US troops surrounded the city.
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"I thought it would be a suicide bombing and this is
how I would die," says Nori of the moment they were surrounded by angry
insurgents.
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Later, knives were held at the hostages' throats in
a macabre video aimed at forcing Japan to withdraw its troops from Iraq.
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Nori was terrified - but it turned out to be a cruel
game when one of his fellow hostages realised the sharp side of the
blade was pointing outwards. "And then I slowly realised that I
might survive," Nori tells Panorama.
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Giuliana Sgrena, an Italian journalist taken hostage
in February, tells Panorama how she saw her rescuer, Italian secret
service agent Nicola Calipari, die in her arms moments after rescuing
her.
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"Only a few minutes before, I thought I was free and
then the man who freed me was dead - it was terrible, terrible, terrible."
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Calipari was shot by American troops and Giuliana was
badly wounded.
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Panorama spent four weeks behind the scenes with Giuliana's
husband, Pier Scolari, and her newspaper, Il Manifesto, as they conducted
a massive anti-war campaign in Italy - designed to free her.
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Guiliana tells Panorama how that campaign influenced
her guards, especially when footballer Francesco Totti played in a t-shirt
bearing her name.
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Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, French journalists
seized in August last year, speak Arabic and gained a unique insight
into the insurgency.
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"We felt we were on planet Bin Laden," says Georges
of the moment they were allowed to interview the leader of an Islamic
militant cell within the group that had seized them.
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The insurgent had trained with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan
and told them the insurgents supported George Bush because his Presidency
meant that "there will be confrontation, occupation and radicalisation
of the Iraqi people."
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Nine videos were made of the two men - all part of tortuous
negotiations for their release with their government.
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At one point the two men describe how their captors
threatened to kill them one at a time.
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"We prayed and held hands," says Georges.
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"Each noise you fear something - when they open the
door they are coming to take us and there were some noises around the
house and (we thought) they are preparing our execution," Christian
tells Panorama.
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The two men were released after four months but do not
know whether a ransom was paid, as unconfirmed reports have suggested.
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"We know that in other cases it is not unusual - but
in our case I do not know," says Georges. "But
the most important thing is to bring back the hostage."
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Thomas Hamill, the only American hostage to escape from
captivity, tells Panorama of the moment his captors learned about the
abuses by US soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison.
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"Their stare cut right through you..they were just
looking for an excuse to kill me. They came in with a dog chain and
wrapped it round my legs. it cut down into the flesh on my legs."
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After his first abortive escape attempt, when US helicopters
failed to spot him, Thomas Hamill actually locked himself back into
his shack.
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A few days later he managed to break out again and ran
towards a passing US military patrol.
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"I'm thinking, 'What are the rules of engagement today?
Are they going to think it's a suicide bomber running across the field?'"
he says.
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"Then I started saying, 'I am an American POW.' They
started walking towards me and I knew it was over then."
