The UK yesterday made it clear that it would not deal with Islamic extremists in Iraq holding engineer Kenneth Bigley, despite a dramatic appeal from the hostage begging Prime Minister Tony Blair to intervene and save his life.
Bigley's Thai wife, Sombat Bigley, added her voice yesterday to his family's desperate appeals to the Tawhid and Jihad (Unity and Holy War) group to spare the life of the 62-year-old engineer from Liverpool.
Bigley was snatched from his Baghdad home one week ago, along with two US colleagues who have since been executed. His captors have been demanding the release of women detained in US-run Iraqi prisons.
"My name is Sombat Bigley. I am Ken Bigley's wife. We have been married for seven years and I love him very much," Sombat Bigley said in an emotional appeal, made in her native Thai language and videotaped in Bangkok.
"I plead for your mercy now and beg that you release Ken so that I may be with him again and so that he may also be reunited with his family in England," she said, visibly shaken.
But in London, a spokesman for Blair -- who had been hoping that Iraq would fade from the headlines as he prepares for a looming general election -- said there was no change to Downing Street's uncompromising line.
"We're following the situation very closely, and our feelings are very much with Ken Bigley and his family," the spokesman told reporters.
"The government is doing all it can to secure his release, [but] we have no intention of negotiating with terrorists," the spokesman said.
Bigley appeared in a fuzzy video seen yesterday on the Internet, in which he appealed to Blair: "I need you to be compassionate as you always said you were and to help me to live..."
"I don't want to die ... Please, please release the female prisoners ... I need your help, Mr Blair. You are now the only person on God's earth that I can speak to," he said.
There was no word from Blair himself, while his wife, Cherie Blair, attending a senior citizens' event, only said: "Like everyone in Britain, my heart goes out to the Bigley family."
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