LOSE-UP

involved in hostage negotia- Terry Waite tions only by accident in 1981 - when there appeared to be nobody else suitable for the Until last November, Terry lated in Libya when he had to task. Waite, the Archbishop of convince the country's It is possible to take a slight- Canterbury's special advis- General People's Congress ly more sceptical view of er, who has specialised in that it should recommend the Terry Waite's achievements, negotiating the release of release of the four British however. After all, five of the hostages in the Middle East, prisoners who had been held hostages whose release he had appeared to stride there for several months. organised were either mem- through the sinister morass Shortly before his address to bers of the Anglican Com- of Lebanese politics with a the Congress, Mr Waite had munion, or members of quiet confidence borne from also swung Libyan sym- associated churches. It is not a profound moral conviction. pathies his way by offering a surprising, therefore, that The evidence suggested free telephone service to Li- Mr Waite could assume the that his confidence was not byan held prisoners in Brit- authority to argue for their misplaced. He had, after all, ish gaols, so as to assuage the release - although the magni- secured the release of three anxieties of relatives over tude of the task involved Anglican missionaries held their treatment. should not be ignored. in in 1981, and in 1985, In his half-hour address to Equally, in the case of had persuaded the Gadafy the Congress, Mr Waite was Libya, it was evident that the regime to release four Bri- obviously at great pains to British prisoners there were tons held in the aftermath of convince his audience that really being held as hostages the St James' Square inci- he was prepared to take their - Libya wanted contact and dent, in London in April 1984, assertions of principle negotiations with the British when WPC Yvonne Fletcher seriously - an attitude that government and, if possible, was killed in crossfire from earned him resolute and un- the release of Libyans in the Libyan People's Bureau. dying hostility in Downing British prisons. Mr Waite's He had also managed to Street. No wonder that Mrs task was, to that extent, obtain the release of three Thatcher now refers to his eased. The long wait Americans held in captivity in Lebanon as an Terry Waite's success is in during 1985 and 1986. international not a British large part due to the willing- November. Unfortunately, All in all it was an impress- problem, and that the Fore- ness of those with whom he although there is no substan- ive result, a victory, it ign Office has been equally negotiates to accept that he tive evidence that he ever seemed, for individual initia- careful to emphasise that it does genuinely offer a moral offered money for hostages tive when governmental had warned Mr Waite not to evaluation of the issues con- (despite Palestinian claims heavyhandedness seemed return to the Lebanon in fronting both hostage takers that he raised $2m from pri- unable to cut through the January 1987. and negotiators in terms that vate US sources to bail out Mr Waite has had plenty of they can accept. The fact that the remaining US hostages in 'To them, Mr Waite is now practice in applying moral he has dealt mainly with Isla- Lebanon) or promised to persuasion and patience to mic fundamentalists - where arrange prisoner exchanges merely an emissary from those political and social problems. a large part of the justifica- (Kuwait, for instance, has Western institutions which He began his career in the tion for hostage taking is consistently refused to talk they despise and with which Anglican Church through the based precisely on the im- to him about the 17 Islamic cynical bargaining for tangible Church Army - an Anglican morality of Western society Jihad prisoners it holds answer to the Salvation and its values - has, in itself, whose release has now been results is the best approach' Army movement - but was made his approach to the demanded by his captors in soon acting as adviser to the problem an appropriate one. Lebanon. Gordian knot of hostage- Bishop of Bristol in relations One wonders, for instance, if But the Lebanese groups in- takers' demands and official with the USA and Africa. In the extremist Palestinian volved in hostage taking bombast. 1968, after five years in this groups that have been in- have learned from the evi- To many people the post, he moved to Africa, tak- volved in hostage-taking in dence of US duplicity over achievement seemed far ing up a post for the Anglican the past would be quite as hostages and terrorists, as greater than the simple suc- Archbishop of , open to his arguments. They, revealed in the Irangate cess in freeing 10 hostages. It Ruwanda and Burundi. It after all, tend to look for scandal. They no longer was Mr Waite's approach to was a post that was to have its tangible results. seem prepared to make the the problem that seemed so dangerous moments, for he Indeed, that is, perhaps, the distinction between indi- impressive. It lacked any ob- was in Kampala during Idi real tragedy of Mr Waite's vidual negotiators from the vious material motive, offer- Amin's expulsion of Ugan- situation today. He clearly West, buttressed by moral ing instead patient discus- dan Asians and was frequent- returned to Beirut in Janu- principle, and Western gov- sion, the constant formula- ly arrested by members of ary in order to re-establish ernments prepared to wheel tion of a moral stance based what was an increasingly un- his credentials as an inde- and deal for domestic elec- on his personal religious con- disciplined army. pendent negotiator, still wed- toral advantage. To them, Mr victions and the constant In 1971 he moved to , ded to the moral view and not Waite is now merely an emis- attempt to understand and acting as adviser to a Roman involved in undercover US sary from those Western in- appreciate the arguments Catholic development orga- attempts at purchasing free- stitutions which they despise being put forward by those nisation, and in 1980, was cal- dom for their hostages in and with which cynical bar- with whom he was dealing. led back to Britain to join Lebanon in time for the gaining for tangible results His whole approach was, Archbishop Runcie's person- American congressional is the best approach. • perhaps, most clearly articu- al advisory staff. He became mid-term elections last George Joffe

64 MARXISM TODAY MARCH 1987