By IRNA
London : The Foreign Office has condemned the broadcasting of a British hostages being held in Iraq appealing to the UK government.
In a short tape aired by the Dubai-based al-Arabiya TV channel on Tuesday night, a bearded man calling himself Peter Moore called on Prime Minister Gordon Brown to release nine Iraqis in the custody of coalition forces.
But a Foreign Office spokesman in London criticized the release of such videos, saying that they were “greatly distressing to the families of those involved.”
“No matter what the cause, holding hostages is never justified and is never a way of making progress on any issue,” the spokesman said without confirming that the Briton was among five seized at the Iraqi Finance Ministry in Baghdad last May.
“We urge those holding the group to release them immediately. We are in close contact with the Iraqi authorities and doing everything we can to try and secure a swift release,” he said.
The broadcast is the first news of the men since early December, when families and friends of the five appealed to their kidnappers to free them, breaking a virtual news blackout.
The Guardian newspaper said Wednesday that despite a near-total news blackout, it understood there was “intensive behind-the-scenes activity to free the men” and added that there was no evidence that any of the captives have been harmed.
The five Britons reportedly included four who worked for the Canadian firm GardaWorld as security guards, a fifth, whom the others were guarding, an employee of BearingPoint, a management consulting firm based in Virginia.