Envoy-Hostage Pleads in Film : Asks U.S. to Work for Release of 5 Held in Lebanon

A U.S. diplomat kidnaped in Beirut last year was shown in a film today, asking the U.S. government to work for his release and that of four other Americans held in Lebanon.

In Washington, President Reagan voiced relief that William Buckley is still alive and said the United States continues to work behind the scenes to secure the release of all five men.

“Believe me, this is very much on our minds,” Reagan said. “We haven’t forgotten they’re in captivity, but I don’t think it would be productive for us to talk about what we’re doing.”

Reagan, responding to questions from reporters, said the videotape showing Buckley, who was kidnaped in March, 1984, provides the first evidence that the five are alive “if we can take it for granted that (the tape) is recent.”

“We’ve never been able to establish that one way or the other,” he said. “We’ve just had to assume that they are alive.”

A State Department official confirmed today that the man in the film was indeed Buckley.

“Today, the 22nd of January, 1985, I am well and my friends Benjamin Weir and Jeremy Levin are also well. We ask that our government take action for our release quickly,” said Buckley, a political officer at the U.S. Embassy.

The television film agency Visnews, which showed the film at a special screening in London, would not say how it got the film.

Visnews Managing Editor Kevin Hamilton said the agency had not received any demands with the videotape.

Not Intermediaries

“We do not see ourselves as intermediaries or negotiators,” Hamilton said. “We simply obtained the video.”

In the tape, Buckley holds a Beirut French-language newspaper, and although the date is not legible in the film, the pictures on the front page identify it as the paper for Jan. 22. There was nothing in the tape to indicate where it was made.

In the tape, Buckley was wearing a brown jacket and standing before a blank wall. He appeared pale but healthy, and his fingernails and his mustache were trimmed.

His brief statement indicated his captors had made some demand on the U.S. government in exchange for the freedom of the Americans, but there was no elaboration.

Minister, Newsman

The Rev. Benjamin E. Weir, 60, a Presbyterian minister, was kidnaped by gunmen in May and Jeremy Levin, 52, Beirut bureau chief of the Atlanta-based Cable News Network, was seized in March.

Two other Americans, Roman Catholic relief worker Martin Lawrence Jenco, 50, and Peter Kilburn, 60, a librarian at the American University of Beirut, also are known to have been kidnaped in Beirut and are still missing.

Cable News Network reported in Washington today that it had learned from “American sources outside the White House” that there is a “tie-in” with the Americans being held hostage in Beirut and the hijacking several weeks ago of a Kuwaiti airliner to Tehran.

No Demands Made

Although the Buckley tape did not specify demands for the hostages’ release, CNN reported it had learned there was “an earlier communication last year in which a specific demand was made.”

The demand was for the release of Shia prisoners who are being held in Kuwait, the report said. The report did not indicate to whom the demand was made or where.

The Shia prisoners are the same group of prisoners that were at issue when a Kuwaiti airliner was hijacked to Tehran on Dec. 4. The hijackers, who killed two Americans on the plane, demanded the release of 17 convicted Shia terrorists held in Kuwait for their role in bomb attacks a year ago against the U.S. and French Embassies and several utility buildings.

The identities and nationalities of the Arabic-speaking hijackers are still unknown.