Margaret Hassan (also known as Madam Margaret) (April 18,1945– November 2004) was an aid worker who worked in Iraq for many years and was kidnapped and murdered there at the age of 59, apparently by Al Queda terrorists in late 2004.
She was born Margaret Fitzsimmons in Dalkey, County Dublin, Ireland, to parents Peter and Mary Fitzsimmons. However, early on after the Allies won World War II her family moved to London, England, where she spent most of her early life and where her younger siblings were born. 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 and became an Iraqi citizen, as was required of foreigners under Saddam Hussein's regime. She remained a Roman Catholic throughout her life and never converted to Islam as was widely reported after her death. A requiem Mass was held for her, after her death was confirmed, at Westminster Cathedral by Cormac Cardinal Murphy O'Connor.
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 October 19, 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 October 25, 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.
On November 2, 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 November 6, 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 November 15, 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 at the time the body was discovered, Teresa Borcz Khalifa, 54, Polish-born and also a long-time Iraqi resident. Khalifa was released by her hostage takers on November 20.
On November 16, 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.
On December 1, newspapers reported that dental tests carried out on the body found in Fallujah showed that the body was not Hassan's. The British Foreign Office stated that they still believed she was dead.
It is not clear who was responsible for Hassan's abduction and murder, and there have been no claims of responsibility as with previous abductions.
The director of the spinal cord clinic she supported in Baghdad, Qayder al-Chalabi, called her loss a huge blow to all Iraqis. "(The killers) made a very big mistake. This was a wrong person", he said on November 17. "We need to admire and remember her. We must have a ceremony every year to remember her". He believes that a statue should be erected in her honour.
On the May 1, 2005 three men were questioned by Iraqi police in connection with the murder.
See also
External links
- "Weeping Hassan pleads for life" – BBC News, 22 October 2004
- "CARE worker pleads for her life" – CNN, 22 October 2004
- "Plea for Iraq Kidnap Clues" – The Guardian, 24 October 2004
- "Captors threaten Hassan handover" – BBC News 2 November 2004
- "'Zarqawi' call to release Hassan" – BBC News 6 November 2004
- "UK Official: Iraq aid worker believed killed" – CNN, 16 November 2004
- Profile: Margaret Hassan – BBC News, 20 October 2004
- "Who Killed Margaret Hassan?" by Robert Fisk, syndicated from The Independent by The Star (South Africa), 17 November 2004
- "Mystery remains over who killed Margaret Hassan" – The Guardian, 18 November 2004
- Press release from CARE
- "Body found in Iraq wasn't Hassan" – Reuters, 1 December 2004.
- "Three quizzed over Hassan killing" – BBC News, 1 May 2005