British Hostage Makes Videotaped Plea

A kidnaped British journalist appeared on a videotape message delivered Friday night, looking haggard and appealing for Britain to help win his freedom. It was the first time he had been heard from in seven months.

The tape of Alec Collett, 64, was flung from a passing car near the An Nahar newspaper building in West Beirut.

“I assure you that time is short both for me and the Socialist Muslim Revolutionary Organization,” Collett, wearing a denim jacket and checkered shirt, said on the videotape. “This party that has taken me wants to reach an end to my situation quietly.”

Collett was referring to a group calling itself the Revolutionary Organization of Socialist Muslims, which claimed responsibility for kidnaping him March 25 as he drove near Beirut airport and has taken responsibility for attacks in the past two years against British interests in other areas of the world.

Collett, a New York City resident who was on assignment in Lebanon for the United Nations when he was abducted by a carload of gunmen, reiterated on the tape that his captors want British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to free “a number of Arabs and Muslims” jailed in Britain.

Collett said he was being kept in “harsh conditions” but gave no other details on the tape. The last word from him came in a similar message delivered to his American wife in May.