The wife of a British hostage threatened with beheading in Syria said their young daughter has not been told that he has been kidnapped by Islamic State.
David Haines, 44, was seized while working with a French aid group in a refugee camp in March last year.
His captivity was revealed by Islamic State (Isis) on Tuesday when he was shown in a video trembling after a jihadist with a London accent appeared to be preparing to behead the American journalist Steven Sotloff.
Mr Haines’s wife, Dragana Prodanovic Haines, described yesterday how she was longing for him to return to their family home. “His safety means everything to us. My daughter is only four-years-old and she does not know the situation,” she said.
“We have not told her that her daddy is missing. I am trying to protect her. She is so young. When he is safe and here [at home] we will be happy.”
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Mrs Prodanovic Haines, a social media editor, said she had decided to remain at the family home in Sisak, central Croatia, rather than to travel to Scotland to be with the rest of her husband’s family.
She said: “I am staying at home. This is the place where I feel safe and my daughter feels safe. We are waiting here for David to return.
“We have agreed not to talk about the situation. When David is safe we can talk about everything, we will welcome everyone.”
Mr Haines’s elder daughter from a previous marriage has described how her father is her “hero”.
Bethany Haines, 17, from Perth, wrote on the social media site Ask.fm: “What I want most is to have my dad home for good.” Bethany was subjected to vile abuse by internet “trolls” about her father’s situation which has since been deleted. Mr Haines’s brother, Michael, broke down in tears yesterday as he thanked the press for their considerate reporting.
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He said: “We do not want to answer any questions but we acknowledge that you are being tactful and careful with your approach.”
Mr Haines had worked with aid groups around the world since 1999. He was seized while working as security consultant with the Paris-based group Agency for Technical Co-operation and Development in Atmeh close to the Turkish border.
The group’s Italian co-ordinator was also kidnapped but was freed in May amid suggestions that his government had paid a ransom.
David Cameron insisted yesterday that Britain would not pay to free nationals held by terror groups and took a swipe at western nations that had done so.
“I am in no doubt that when countries have allowed ransoms to be paid, that has ended up in terrorist groups — including this terrorist group — having tens of millions of dollars that they can spend on kidnapping other hostages, in preparing terrorist plots, including against us here in the UK, and in buying arms and weapons to wreak havoc.”
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The prime minister said that the government would do everything it could to help British hostages, including rescue attempts.
“I have ordered a number of hostage rescues in different parts of the world, and there was a hostage rescue attempt in this case as well — sadly not successful,” he said.
Mr Haines’s identity was widely reported in the foreign media but was initially not published in Britain at the request of his family.
National newspapers published his name yesterday after the Foreign and Commonwealth Office accepted that there was no operational reason for the secrecy and that his family had recognised that its release was inevitable.
Nick Clegg said that he believed hostages had the best chance of survival if they were not named publicly.
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The deputy prime minister said: “The advice from security experts was completely unambiguous that it is better for the hostage, it is better from a security point of view, not to reveal the name.
“The more you create publicity around who the individual is, the more you create the incentive for the hostage-takers to take ever more extreme steps.”