Margaret Hassan 1944- 2004
By Jason Burke
17 November, 2004
The Guardian
Margaret Hassan, who has been reported killed at the age of 59, was Care International's director in Iraq. She had been held hostage after being abducted at gunpoint in Baghdad on her way to work four weeks ago.
Hassan was born Margaret Fitzsimmons in Ireland, where her early childhood was spent in a Dublin suburb. Later, her family moved to London, where she completed her education.In 1961, when she was 17, she met and married Iraqi-born Tahseen Ali Hassan, who was 26 years old and studying engineering in the UK. In 1972, she moved with her new husband to Iraq, where she began working for the British Council, teaching English to Iraqis. Falling in love with the country, she learnt Arabic, converted to Islam and became an Iraqi citizen.
In 1979 Saddam Hussein consolidated his grip on power in the country and, two years later, led his nation into war with Iran. The conflict cost huge numbers of lives and inflicted massive deprivation on the populations of both countries. However, Hassan never contemplated leaving, becoming first the assistant director of studies at the British Council in Baghdad and then its director. Her husband worked as an economist.
In 1990, Saddam invaded Kuwait. Operation Desert Storm, the first Gulf war, was launched by an international coalition headed by the Americans the following year. Again, despite the 42-day bombing campaign, Hassan never left Iraq. During the war the British Council suspended its work. At the conflict's end, Hassan was left jobless.
Capable and tough, she became the director of the 60-strong Iraqi section of Care International, the Brussels-based relief organisation, which had just started working in the country, focusing its efforts on sanitation, waste, health and nutrition projects. Throughout the 1990s, Hassan was a vocal critic of the sanctions imposed on Iraq by the United Nations.In January 2003, before the US embarked on military action, she briefed both the United Nations and British MPs, drawing attention to the effects of the embargo. "The Iraqi people are already living through a terrible emergency," she said. "They do not have the resources to withstand an additional crisis brought about by military action."
She told one journalist the aid agencies were only "providing the proverbial useless drop in the ocean". Iraq, she argued, was not a third-world country, and, as a result, the people were really suffering. "Sanctions are inhuman and what we are doing cannot redress that inhumanity."
Articulate and forthright, Hassan was often interviewed by the press and other media, and helped distribute tens of thousands of pounds worth of medical supplies purchased by one British newspaper after an appeal to its readers. Her Arabic was fluent, tinged with a strong Iraqi accent.
Childless herself, "Madam Margaret", as she was known, was especially interested in Iraq's young people, whom she called "the lost generation". She was well known in many of Baghdad's slums and other cities. Infants would crowd around her wherever she went. The last Care project completed was a rehabilitation unit for those with spinal injuries.
Hassan was kidnapped in Baghdad on October 19, when men dressed in police uniforms stopped her car as she was being driven to her office. Her driver and unarmed guard were pulled from the vehicle and beaten. Hassan stepped in to stop the beating, offering to go with the gunmen. That was the last time she was seen. Hours later she appeared, distressed, in a video issued by captors calling themselves merely "an armed Islamic group".
However, Hassan did appear in three harrowing videos. The most recent footage - released on November 2 - was so distressing that al-Jazeera, the Arabic television station, refused to screen much of it on humanitarian grounds.
It is understood the first part showed Hassan pleading for her life directly to camera before suddenly fainting. A bucket of water was then believed to have been thrown over her head and she was shown lying wet and helpless on the ground before getting up and crying. Hassan, who had British, Irish and Iraq nationality, was then shown pleading for her life and appealing to the British government.
Her Irish birth made her eligible for Irish citizenship, and that allowed the Irish government to take up her case, as it did with that of the British hostage Kenneth Bigley, who was murdered last month.
In the video, her captors threatened to hand her over to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who beheaded Bigley. It is unclear whether any such transfer occurred. Zarqawi recently called for her release - a measure of her known popularity among Iraqis.
Following the release of the video, Deirdre Fitzsimmons, Hassan's sister, made an emotional plea for her release. She said her sister was an Iraqi and had dedicated her life to helping the Iraqi people.
Following Hassan's abduction, protesters gathered outside Care International's Baghdad headquarters, carrying her picture and banners calling for her freedom. Their appeals, however, were in vain. Last week a body of a Western woman, believed to be that of Hassan, was found by American troops in Falluja.
A video of her execution has been passed to al-Jazeera, who have refused to broadcast it. The identity of her murderers remains unclear. She is survived by her husband, a brother and three sisters.
· Margaret Hassan, aid worker, born 1944; died around November 14 2004
