Ex-Archbishop of Canterbury makes Iraq hostage appeal
Kidnappers urged to release British hostages
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Saturday, 17, May 2008 11:54
The former Archbishop of Canterbury has made an appeal to the captors of five British hostages in Iraq to set them free.
In a video he has released through the Times newspaper, Lord Carey addresses the kidnappers as "men of faith" and urges them to release their hostages "who long to be back home once more".
The appeal was recorded last Friday at the House of Lords and did not make any reference to the government, preferring a direct negation with the captors.
The five men – four guards and one computer specialist – were kidnapped in Baghdad, Iraq on May 29th 2007.
A father of one of the men has told the Times of the trauma he and his family have been put through since his son's disappearance last year.
He said: "I just feel there's not enough happening and I would like to see more done about it because it's my son out there."
"Maybe they [the kidnappers] will show a bit of sympathy and compassion and let him go."
Lord Carey's former Middle East envoy, Canon Andrew White, accompanies him on the video, telling the kidnappers that Iraq is one of the world's "greatest nations".
He explains that the hostages had been in Iraq carrying out work to help rebuild the country when they were taken.
A spokesman for the Foreign Office welcomed the video and said that it is doing "everything that [it] can" to ensure the safe return of the hostages.