Deal Must Include ‘Forgotten 7,’ Families Insist

Gratified by what they see as the U.S. government’s belated public concern for their relatives, some of the families of the seven Americans kidnaped in Beirut before the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 renewed their demands Thursday that continued negotiations include all 46 Americans held captive in Lebanon.

“They cannot make this deal without including the Forgotten Seven,” said Mae Mihelich, sister of Father Lawrence Jenco of Joliet, Ill., who, as head of Catholic Relief Services in Lebanon, was seized by gunmen Jan. 8. “They are also hostages and they are all, in a sense, under the same roof.”

For the first time since the TWA hijacking crisis began, the Reagan Administration has begun to use the figure 46, rather than 39, the number of unreleased Americans aboard the TWA flight, in its demands for unconditional release of the U.S. hostages--an indication that it is including the seven other hostages in its diplomatic efforts.

‘Have Felt Lost’

Mihelich, one of several hostage family members scheduled to meet with President Reagan in Chicago today, added in a telephone interview: “We have felt lost up until now. We first asked to come to Washington 5 1/2 months ago. We never got anywhere. It had to take a disaster of this magnitude to make the President aware.”

Similarly, John Weir, son of the Rev. Benjamin Weir, a Presbyterian minister who was kidnaped in Beirut on May 8, 1984, said that he and his family “empathize very much with the families of the TWA hostages.”

But, he added, “without belittling their experience, they have not gone through the length of time--or conditions--that my father has been subjected to. But their situation has been getting a great deal more attention than our crisis.”

David Say, brother-in-law of Terry A. Anderson, Mideast correspondent for the Associated Press who was kidnaped March 16, said that his family was unhappy that the State Department initially treated the seven earlier hostages apart from those taken in the hijacking.

‘A Separate Incident’

“We haven’t heard a thing from the State Department,” Say said. “The last conversation my wife had with them was right after the TWA incident started. (At first) we just took it for granted that our people were going to be included.

“But the State Department told us, no, it was a separate incident and we should just be patient. They were working on it--but it was separate from TWA. That’s when my wife started hollering.”

But now, he said, “We’re real happy that they’re talking about finally including them.”

Blake Kilburn, brother of Peter Kilburn, a librarian at the American University who disappeared Dec. 3, 1984, and is believed to have been kidnaped, described himself as “very frustrated.”

“I’m his closest relative and we’re all anxious about him,” he said in a telephone interview from Papeete, Tahiti. “The State Department did manage to call me once, but they gave me very little information. The thought crossed my mind when I was reading in the newspaper about the hijacking: Hey, why can’t the others be included too?”

Eric Jacobsen, oldest son of David P. Jacobsen, of Huntington Beach, administrator of the American University Hospital in West Beirut who was seized May 28, said the Administration’s new approach “lifted my spirits more than anything else because I haven’t heard any statements like that before.”

‘Have to Trust Them’

“They (the State Deparment) assured me they are doing everything they can,” he added. “I have to trust them. Maybe they are pursuing it with a little more intensity now.”

Jean Sutherland, wife of Thomas Sutherland, dean of the agriculture department at the American University, said that she was not as frustrated as the others. But she acknowledged that may be because her husband was abducted only five days before the hijacking.

“I’m not there,” she said, referring to the other families of those kidnaped before the hijacking. “I don’t know where I’m going to be in 14 months.”

Sutherland said that she received a telephone call from the State Department after the hijacking “and they assured us they would not forget. At the same time, they did say, ‘You do realize these are separate situations.’ I said, ‘I do understand.’ ”

She added: “When Tom and I decided to go (to Beirut), we knew what the risks were. It was one of those things you just hoped wouldn’t happen. But it’s different to go voluntarily and work in those conditions--that’s different from those who were on the plane from Athens.”

The other American taken before the TWA incident is William Buckley of Medford, Mass., a political officer at the U.S. Embassy, kidnaped March 16, 1984.

Sutherland said that she hopes for a “productive” release, one that “will make people feel they can go on vacation, travel on airplanes--and one that will allow my husband and I to return to Beirut to work and to live.”