University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, December 4, 1991
MIDEAST HOSTAGES
11
Captors free another U.S. hostage
Iranian ambassador predicts the remaining U.S. captive will be released today
The Associated Press
DAMASCUS, Syria — The Lebanon kidnapping ordeal seemed headed for an end with the release of another U.S. citizen yesterday, and reports said Terry Anderson, the last U.S. captive, could be freed today.
The freeing of Alann Steen was the latest in a series of dramatic releases since August that has been orchestrated by the United Nations. Only three Westerners still are held captive by Shiite Muslim radicals.
U. N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, who had predicted Steen's release 24 hours earlier, said in New York after meeting with Iranian an Ambassador Kamal Kharrazi that he expected yet another release within two days. "I know it will be very soon, but I cannot say when," he added.
Kharrazi said that it was his understanding that Anderson would be freed today, and sources in Damascus who knew him had made negotiations made the same prediction.
Besides Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, two Germans — Thomas
Kemptner and Heinrich Streibeg are still held. An Italian is missing, but reports say he is dead. Anderson, kid of Chelsea, March 16, 1985, is the longest held.
Steen, a Boston native, spent nearly five years in captivity.
"It it's great to be out," the 52-year-old journalism teacher told reporters at a news conference at the Syrian Foreign Ministry.
Steen, thin and pale, wept as he was to upper to U.S. Ambassador Christoph Fischer.
"I don't think I can find the words right now to convey how I feel, except that it's wonderful." said Steen, who was the director of the U.S.-supported Beirut University College by extremists posing as Lebanese police. "Five years is no fun."
The pro-Iranian organization of Islamic Jihad for Liberation of Palestine said it freed Steen in Beirut under a U.N.-brokered agreement. Syrian army officers drove Steen across the rainswept border to Damascus, the traditional first stop for freed hostages.
Chronology of hostage releases
Since August, when U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cunlair began his intensive efforts to free Western hostages in Lebanon, seven longtime hostages and 91 Arab prisoners have been released in the Middle East. Here is a chronological look at those releases:
Aug. 8
Aug. 8
British hostage
John McCarthy is freed
Sept. 11
Israel releases 51
Arab prisoners
Aug.11 Hostage Edward Tracy is freed in Reinhard
AUG
Oct. 21 Israel and its allied militia in Lebanon free 15 Lebanese prisoners.
Sent. 24
British hostage Jack Mann is released by the Revolutionary Justice Organization, a Shire
Source: The Associated Press
Twenty-five Arab detainees are released by Israel's allied militia in Southern Lebanon.
U. S. hostage Joseph Cicippio is freed by the Revolutionary Justice Organization.
Steen was flown last night to Germany, where he will undergo medical examinations and be debriefed by intelligence officials.
Nearly 100 people turned out in sub-
temperatures to greet Steen Krug.
Oct. 22
U.S. professor Jesse
Bergman was
banned by
Islamic Jihad for the
Liberation of Palestine.
pital in Wiesbaden.
He punched his fist in the air in jubilation as confetti showered down around him, and the crowd cheered wildly. A banner hung outside the hospital said, "Dear Santa, Please Bring Us One More," referring to Anderson.
Nov. 18
Islamic Jihad frees American Thomas
Britton Watie
Britton Watie
Asked if he had a message for his wife, Steen said: "I love her, I miss her."
Steen said in Damascus that he had exercised for two hours every day while in captivity but that he had lots of colds.
Aimee Brainard/KANSAN
Shifting world powers forcing Iran to accelerate policy change
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — After all the frust
was rushing up and down yesterday,
was rushing up and down yesterday,
Eight Westerners have been freed in four months — their freedom a result of historic changes that include the collapse of the Soviet Union and the display of U.S. military power in the Persian Gulf.
Those and other developments accelerated policy shifts in Iran and Syria, the twonations that had to cooperate for the ordeal to end.
ANALYSIS
Expectations were high that journalist Terry Anderson, the last U.S. citizen held in Lebanon, would soon be older more than 8/12 years in captivity.
"They understood, the Iranians, that hostages were the single main obstacle between Iran and the rest of the world," said Judib Kipper, an analyst at the Brookings Institute.
He would re-enter a world politically far different than it was when he was
taken prisoner in March 1985.
It is a world in which U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar was able to use the new concerns of Iran and Syria to broker deals for hostage releases that involved complex elements, including the Israeli release of Arab prisoners and the U.S. freeing of Iranian assets.
The swift release of hostages after so many years of dashed hopes created the impression of a sudden shift.
But many analysts suggest their release came as a result of changes that began before the Soviet collapse and the war.
Shaul Bakhash, a professor at George Mason University who specializes in Iranian affairs, said that the push within Iran to normalize relations with the West took place over "a much longer period of time."
their efforts to end the diplomatic and economic isolation that began when Ayatollah Khomeini ruled the country.
In contrast to the Khomeiniera, said Kipper, Iran now is governed by "mostly U.S. and Western-educated technocrats."
Bakhash said that the Iranians used the gulf war as a cover to accelerate
But the desire in Teheran for a normalization of relations with the outside world would not have been enough to free the hostages.
It took an alteration in the balance of
the hostages were taken in the mid-1900s.
1985 and 1986, Iran and Iraq were waging all-out war and the United States and the Soviet Union were com-
mended for influence in the Middle East.
With an unpredictable suddenness, the Cold War ended and Soviet influence in the region dropped sharply.
"There is no more cocoon of superpower protection to rush to," Kipper said.
Captivity scarred Cicippio
The Associated Press
WIESBADEN, Germany — Joseph Cicippio has dizzy spells from being knocked unconscious by Lebanese abductors in 1986, and he suffered frostbite while chained to a balcony during two winters, a military doctor said yesterday.
Dr. Ure Fohlmeister, who is overseeing Cicippio's medical tests at the U.S. military hospitalat Wiesbaden, said that Cicippio was very successful in occasional dizziness and would always be sensitive to the cold.
But he essentially gave Cicciope a clean bill of health, dispelling fears of family members who were taken hostage and arrested when they.wanted him on television.
"He actually is in very good physical condition," Fohlmeier said. Cicippio passed psychiatric tests with "flying colors." he said.
Fohmeister said that doctors had not determined why Cicppio underwent surgery several weeks before his release.
the onset of abdominal pain ... and vomiting, which increased in intensity over about five days. And then he underwent surgery to correct this." Fohlmeister said. "We have no idea what the illness was... but we know that all of his organs are functioning normally now."
An abdominal scar shows that the surgery was done by a professional doctor, he said.
"Two months ago, Cicippio had
Ciccipio also suffers occasional dizzy spells from being knocked unconscious with a blunt instrument. He was published on Sept. 12, 1986. Fohlmeister said
Cicpioio still has a small dent in his skull from the blow, he said.
Fohmehlier said that Cicippio probably would stay at the hospital all week before returning to his family's home in Norristown, Pa.
The damage to Ciccippi's fingers and toes from frostbite will permanently cause burning sensations during cold weather, he said.
Cicippio was acting comprroller at American University in Beirut when he was kidnapped.
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