4:41pm Thursday 2nd February 2006
By Alex Melvin
NEW footage of Norman Kember, the Pinner grandfather kidnapped in Iraq, was broadcast on Arab television on Saturday, two months after his ordeal began.
Professor Kember, 74, of Cuckoo Hill Road, looked gaunt and dishevelled but appeared unharmed on the 55-second film, screened on satellite station al-Jazeera.
His captors, who call themselves The Swords of Righteousness Brigade, said the new tape was made on January 21.
In their first video since December 10, they repeated their demands for the release of all Iraqi prisoners by the UK and US governments.
But unlike before, the shadowy group did not set a deadline.
The pensioner was snatched from a Baghdad street on November 26 after flying to Iraq with the Christian Peacemakers Team.
Two Canadians and an American, seen alongside Professor Kember on the tape, were also abducted.
After threatening to kill the peace activists by December 7, the kidnappers extended the deadline by three days.
Prominent and controversial Muslim figures, including former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg and al-Qaeda terrorist Abu Qatada, pleaded with the group to release the men.
But they fell mysteriously silent and the Foreign Office admitted fearing the worst.
Local reaction to the latest film was cautiously optimistic.
Reverend Bob Gardiner, Minister of Harrow Baptist Church in College Road, where the professor and his wife Pat, 70, have worshipped for 40 years, said: "We stand alongside Pat and her family, offering her whatever support they can in this trying and difficult time."
Phiroza Gan, chairman of Harrow Interfaith Council and friend of Professor Kember, said: "We are all hoping and praying. I will be going to the Civic Centre this week to see if there anything we can do.
"Where there is life there is hope."
Council leader, Councillor Navin Shah, said: "It's extremely worrying for his family and the people of Harrow, who are keeping a close eye on what's happening.
"I will talk to Reverend Gardiner and seek his advice on what the council can do.
"I would like to tell Norman's family that he is far from forgotten. His well-being remains close to our hearts."
The Mayor of Harrow, Councillor Paddy Lyne, said: "Norman and his family remain in our thoughts and we continue to pray for his speedy release.
"We pray that his faith gives him the strength to cope with this unimaginable ordeal."
Reverend Alan Betteridge, a friend of Professor Kember for 40 years, said: "We are glad to have evidence he is still alive but are concerned that the same demands are being made. He looks a lot thinner but that's not surprising.
"I hope those in the Muslim community speak up for his release, as they did before Christmas. This could have the biggest impact."
Mr Betteridge added that Mrs Kember was "coping very bravely and strongly".
Bruce Kent, a vice-president of Pax Christi UK and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said: "Let's hope and pray that the hostage takers will say,' enough's enough'. They've had enough appeals, appeals from the whole Muslim world to let these people go."
Anas Al-Tikriti, of the Muslim Association of Britain, who flew to Iraq on December 1 to plead for Professor Kember's release, said: "Now it's been proved the captives are still in the same hands, our efforts over the past two months have not gone to waste.
"The fact they released the tape after such a long silence suggests they are willing to communicate."
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are urgently assessing the video. We continue to do all we can."
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