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Kidnapping and killing of Margaret Hassan

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Margaret Hassan
Margaret Hassan

Margaret Hassan (also, Madam Margaret) (1945–November 14, 2004?) was an aid worker who worked in Iraq for many years and was kidnapped and killed there by anti-American rebels in late 2004.

She was born Margaret Fitzsimmons in Dublin, Ireland, to parents Peter and Mary Fitzsimmons. However, most of her early life was spent in London, England, where her family moved early on. At the age of seventeen, she married Tahseen Ali Hassan, a twenty-six-year-old Iraqi studying engineering in the United Kingdom. She moved to Iraq with him in 1972, when she began work with the British Council of Baghdad, teaching English. Eventually she learned Arabic, converted to Islam, and became an official Iraqi citizen.

During the early 1980s Margaret became the assistant director of studies at the British Council; later in the decade she became director. Meanwhile, Tahseen worked as an economist. Margaret remained in Baghdad during the 1991 Gulf War, although the British Council suspended operations in Iraq, and she was left jobless at the end of it.

Margaret joined humanitarian relief organisation CARE International in 1991, the aid group having established itself in Iraq during that year. Sanitation, health, and nutrition became major concerns in the sanctioned Iraq; she became a vocal critic of the United Nations restrictions. She was opposed to the United States invasion of Iraq in 2003, arguing before it that the Iraqis were already "living through a terrible emergency. They do not have the resources to withstand an additional crisis brought about by military action".

Well known in many of Baghdad's slums and other cities, Margaret was especially interested in Iraq's young people, whom she called "the lost generation". Her presence could draw large crowds of locals. [1]

She was kidnapped in Baghdad on 19 October 2004, and apparently killed some four weeks later. At the time of her kidnapping she was head of Iraqi operations for CARE.

Her kidnappers did not issue any specific demands, but in a video released of her in captivity she pleaded for the withdrawal of British troops. She stated that "these might be [her] last hours", "Please help me. The British people, tell Mr Blair to take the troops out of Iraq and not bring them here to Baghdad" and that she did not "want to die like Bigley", a reference to Kenneth Bigley who was beheaded in Iraq only weeks earlier.

CARE International suspended operations in Iraq because of Hassan's kidnapping. The last CARE project Hassan completed was one for children with spinal injuries.

Patients of an Iraqi hospital (where her work had some effect) have taken to the streets in protest against the hostage takers' actions. On 25 October, between 100 and 200 Iraqis protested outside CARE's offices in Baghdad, demanding her release. Prominent elements of the Iraqi resistance, such as the Shura Council of Fallujah Mujahedeen, condemned the kidnapping and called for her release.

File:Margarethassan.jpg
Margaret Hassan in a video released by her captors

On 2 November, Al Jazeera reported that the kidnappers threatened to hand her over to the group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who were responsible for the murder of Kenneth Bigley. However, on 6 November, a statement purportedly from al-Zarqawi appeared on an Islamist website calling for the release of Ms. Hassan unless the kidnappers had information she was aligned with the invading coalition. However, the statement could not immediately be authenticated. Ms. Hassan's whereabouts were unknown in the video.

On 15 November, U.S. Marines in Fallujah uncovered the body of an unidentified blonde- or grey-haired woman with her legs and arms cut off and throat slit. The body could not be immediately identified, but was thought unlikely to be Hassan, who had brown hair. There was one other western woman known missing in Iraq, Teresa Borcz Khalifa, 54, Polish-born and also a long-time Iraqi resident. Khalifa was known to have blonde hair.

On 16 November, CNN reported that 'CARE' had issued a statement [2] indicating that the organization was aware of a videotape allegedly showing Hassan's murder. The British Foreign Office has yet to confirm the tape as genuine. Al-Jazeera reported that it had received a tape allegedly showing Ms. Hassan's murder but was unable to confirm its authenticity. The video shows a woman, referred to as Hassan, being shot with a handgun by a masked man.

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