Sad, Bloody End To Bigley Saga
By Rory McCarthy
09 October , 2004
The Guardian
Ken
Bigley, the Briton whose caged and shackled image was broadcast around
the world pleading for his life, and whose ordeal cast a pall over Downing
Street and the conference season as his family begged directly to Tony
Blair for help, has been murdered by his kidnappers.
A video showing the beheading of the 62-year-old by Islamist militants
emerged in Baghdad yesterday - three weeks after he was kidnapped from
his home in the capital - though it was not immediately broadcast on
Arabic television.
In the film, the
British engineer appeared unshaven and wore an orange jumpsuit as he
knelt before a line of six masked men dressed in black.
Mr Bigley made a
plea for his life and one of the militants made a statement in Arabic,
saying their demands that all women be freed from prisons in Iraq had
not been met. The militant then pulled a knife from his belt. Three
others held Mr Bigley down.
The killing came
after days of pleas from Mr Bigley's family and private negotiations
that many people had suggested could secure the Briton's release.
At a press conference
last night, the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, admitted that the government
had exchanged messages with Mr Bigley's captors in recent days, but
he refused to give details.
"Four days
ago, an individual approached the British embassy in Baghdad, presenting
himself as a potential intermediary with the captors," Mr Straw
said. "It was very clearly in Mr Bigley's interests to establish
contact.
"Messages were
exchanged with the hostage takers in an attempt to dissuade them from
carrying out their threat to kill Mr Bigley but at no stage did they
abandon their demands relating to the release of women prisoners, even
though they were fully aware there are no women prisoners in our custody
in Iraq."
Mr Straw said he and the prime minister had approved the content of
the messages, which he said did not contravene the government's policy
on dealing with kidnappers.
While secret efforts
were being made to free Mr Bigley, a very public campaign - which included
promises of help from Yasser Arafat, Muammar Gadafy, the British Council
of Muslims and the Irish government - was mounted.
Sources from the
insurgent stronghold of Falluja, west of Baghdad, told Reuters that
Mr Bigley had been killed on Thursday afternoon in the nearby town of
Latifiya, a violent Sunni district south-west of the capital.
Four days ago 3,000
US and Iraqi troops launched an operation in the area, which is believed
to be on a supply route used to support insurgents in Falluja. Captain
David Nevers, of the US 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which led the
raid, said they had found no trace of Mr Bigley.
Several suspects
in the area have been arrested over the past month, including one from
a "target list" who was captured last Saturday.
The men in the videos
showing Mr Bigley were members of the Tawhid and Jihad group led by
the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has a $25m (£13.9m)
bounty on his head. It is known that the SAS was involved in the hunt
for Zarqawi, who is thought to be a leader of the insurgency.
Diplomats have questioned
whether the militants really wanted women prisoners released, or simply
wanted to frighten westerners out of Iraq. The US military has said
it is holding only two women, both biological scientists from Saddam
Hussein's regime regarded as "high value" detainees, and has
ruled out their release.
Mr Bigley was kidnapped
at dawn on September 16 with two of his American colleagues from their
house in Mansour, a wealthy neighbourhood in west Baghdad. Within days
Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley had been beheaded, their killings
captured on videotape and posted on the internet. A string of similar
videos from the same group have appeared in recent months, showing the
killings of other foreigners and Iraqis.
But Mr Bigley was
treated differently and twice footage was released of him dressed in
an orange jumpsuit like the suspects held by the US at Guantánamo
Bay, Cuba, and begging for his life.
"Tony Blair
is lying, he is lying when he said he's negotiated. He has not negotiated.
My life is cheap," he said in one video.
Mr Bigley, a civil
engineer, had been working in Iraq for more than a year for a Middle
Eastern contractor, Gulf Supplies and Commercial Services.
Yesterday Abu Dhabi
television received a copy of a video showing Mr Bigley's killing. The
channel announced his death in an afternoon news show but refused to
broadcast the video itself. "Abu Dhabi TV refuses to serve as a
mouthpiece for such groups or their actions," it said.
Mr Bigley's death
brings to 32 the number of hostages who have been killed since April.