BAGHDAD, 18 November 2004 — The Iraqi husband of Margaret Hassan was said to be deeply distressed yesterday after a video emerged showing the apparent murder of the Irish-born aid worker by her kidnappers.
Locals who knew the head of the relief agency CARE International in Iraq were also devastated, protesting that the apparent killing of the woman known as “Mama Margaret” was against Islam.
Tahseen Hassan, who has pleaded with his wife’s kidnappers to return her to him, was unwilling to leave his home in a modest Baghdad district.
“We are sorry, he is very depressed and is in a very bad situation,” said one relative who came to the gate of the family’s stone house in the Palestine neighborhood of the Iraqi capital.
Qatar-based Arabic television station Al-Jazeera said Tuesday it had received a video that showed an armed man shooting at a blindfolded woman who appeared to be Hassan, who had Irish, British and Iraqi nationalities.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the executed woman was believed to be Hassan and Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed his “abhorrence at the cruel treatment of someone who devoted so many years of their life to helping the people of Iraq.”
Hassan, who has lived in Iraq for 30 years and spent most of her career helping Iraqis, was abducted by unknown attackers on Oct. 19 as she drove to her offices in Baghdad, which have since been closed because of the kidnapping.
She is one of the highest profile victims of a scourge of kidnappings that has plagued Iraq in recent months.
The shuttered CARE headquarters in the west of the capital were as quiet as Hassan’s home, with just a security guard sitting in a booth outside the front gate.
But people living nearby remembered the generous aid worker who spoke fluent Arabic and brought so much to their community, such as a water well and tanks of drinking water during last year’s US-led invasion, which she vociferously opposed.
“She was peaceful and polite, she always did her shopping alone without security even after the war,” said teacher Basim Fawzi Al-Jaffari, 35.
“This is a crime that cannot be forgiven and Islam is against kidnapping and murder.”
