Gordon Brown urged Shia militants yesterday to end the torment being endured by families of British kidnap victims, after tests revealed that the body of a hostage murdered in Iraq was that of Alec MacLachlan, a private security guard.
The Prime Minister demanded the return of a British hostage believed to be still alive and the whereabouts of the body of another murdered hostage.
Mr MacLachlan’s family were informed after his body was identified by forensic scientists and handed over by local authorities in the Iraqi capital on Wednesday.
Announcing the findings, Mr Brown said: “It is with the deepest regret that the body passed to the British Embassy is now discovered to be that of Alec MacLachlan. My thoughts, and I believe the thoughts of the whole country, are with the family.” Mr MacLachlan, from Llanelli, South Wales, died from multiple gunshot wounds. According to sources close to the inquiry, the killing may have taken place last year, given the condition of the body.
Mr MacLachlan was seized in May 2007 with three other security guards and an IT consultant, Peter Moore. They were inside a building of the Iraqi Finance Ministry when several dozen armed men in official uniforms marched in and overpowered them.
Advertisement
The British Government says that all four guards are dead. The bodies of Jason Creswell and Jason Swindlehurst were handed over this summer. A fourth body, belonging to Alan McMenemy, from Glasgow, is still missing and Iraqi officials do not expect it to be returned at present.
The kidnappers, from the League of the Righteous, a Shia splinter group, may be holding on to the body, as well as to Mr Moore, as bargaining chips in talks with the Iraqi Government.
Mr Brown said: “We are demanding of the hostage takers that they now give us information about the whereabouts of Alan McMenemy and return Peter Moore, who we still believe to be alive, as soon as possible. We will pursue these hostage takers, there is no justification for what they have done and we are working with the Iraqi Government to ensure that we get information to the relatives, we get the return of the others and at the same time we bring the hostage takers to justice.”
That, however, is not what the Iraqi Government appears to have in mind. The staggered return of the hostages’ remains is part of a quid pro quo deal brokered by Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, who met representatives of the kidnappers two months ago. The League of the Righteous says that it has renounced violence and is seeking to enter the political process before elections next year.
Tests on Mr MacLachlan’s remains were carried out yesterday by British scientists at the embassy in Baghdad. They compared the teeth with dental records and took DNA samples. The body will be flown back to Britain in the next few days.
Advertisement
Mr McMenemy’s family had to go through yet another ordeal yesterday — a 24-hour wait to find out whether the body recovered in Baghdad was his. “It is just horrific,” his father, Dennis McMenemy, said before the announcement. “You are in limbo, you just don’t know. The lack of information is terrible. You are never told enough, you are always looking for information.”
A few hours later, he was told that it was not his son’s body.
Mr Brown said: “No family should have to endure what they have gone through.”