IRAQ/BRITAIN: The family of the British hostage held in Iraq, Mr Kenneth Bigley, were last night clinging desperately to the hope that their repeated pleas for mercy have had some influence on the ruthless kidnappers who have already beheaded two of his colleagues. Lynne O'Donnell reports from London.
The largest group representing Britain's 1.8 million Muslims, the Muslim Council of Britain, said it was sending envoys to Iraq to help persuade Mr Bigley's captors to free him.
"We are calling on those who are holding him to be merciful," a spokesman, Mr Inayat Bunglawala, said. "Our religion, Islam, does not allow us to harm the innocent, and we will urge them to release Ken Bigley back into the arms of his family."
No word had been received of Mr Bigley since a video appeared on the Internet on Wednesday showing a stressed and sobbing man pleading for the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, to intercede on his behalf.
His brother, Paul, who lives in Holland and has been tirelessly campaigning for his release through contacts in the Middle East, said he believed the silence was a sign that the kidnappers had been receiving the family's pleas.
"I am absolutely convinced that the people who are holding Ken have had sight of my messages. They know only too well what commotion we've caused worldwide, and they're probably enjoying this," he said.
"This is part of the strategy to give them a bit of what they want, if that's buying time for several other people in the world to get their act into gear, finally, and develop some sort of rapport."
It was not clear what contacts the Muslim Council of Britain had in Baghdad or what hope it had of making contact, let alone opening a dialogue, with the al-Qaeda cell holding Mr Bigley.
As the citizens of Liverpool flooded the family home with flowers and letters of support, and leaders of Christian and Muslim communities offered their prayers for Mr Bigley's safety, 50,000 leaflets appealing for information about his whereabouts were distributed throughout Baghdad.
A silent vigil was planned at Liverpool Cathedral.
Mr Bigley's 86-year-old mother, Lil, was released from hospital after suffering a collapse just hours after making a public appeal, televised throughout the Arab world, for her son to be sent home to her, and to his wife and son, alive and safe.
Mrs Bigley, a retired home help who was born in Co Dublin, had been shielded by her sons from the media glare that has accompanied her son's eight-day ordeal since he was dragged from the Baghdad house he shared with two American colleagues.
Another of Mr Bigley's brothers, Philip, said: "As well as being desperately concerned for Ken's safety, we have collectively been trying to protect our elderly mother from any additional trauma by not allowing her to be exposed to the media."
The kidnappers are threatening to kill Mr Bigley unless women prisoners are freed, but have set no deadline.
The British Prime Minister, to whom Mr Bigley appealed in a videotape, has kept quiet for fear of inflaming the crisis.
That stance been in contrast with public appeals by President Jacques Chirac for the release of two French journalists held hostage.
Mr Bigley's relatives have accused the government of not doing enough to save him, but now seem to have accepted London's line that it cannot negotiate for fear of encouraging future kidnaps.
Six Egyptian telecoms workers have been kidnapped in Iraq, an official Egyptian Foreign Ministry source confirmed yesterday.
The source told Reuters the Egyptians worked for a company based in Egypt, Orascom Telecom, which has confirmed the seizure of two workers for its subsidiary company, Iraqna. The source did not name the workers or say when they were kidnapped.
Meanwhile Germany's biggest television network, ARD, said yesterday it planned to pull out its two correspondents in Iraq after a foreign ministry warning that German journalists could be singled out for kidnappings.