Families Keep Fight Going for Beirut Captives

‘We have to maintain a sense of urgency.’

Eric Jacobsen

Long before the sun began to warm the pre-dawn chill, a limousine pulled up to the Watergate apartment building to pick up Eric Jacobsen. Minutes later he was taping a short interview for the “CBS Morning News.”

From there, Jacobsen hurried to the local NBC station for a live interview on the “Today Show.”

When he returned to the apartment, he still had time for a quick nap before breakfast. A few hours later, Jacobsen was on his way home to Huntington Beach after a whirlwind 48 hours of meetings in the nation’s capital.

For Jacobsen, 29, the Washington routine has become tedious and tiring. But it is important to him and the other relatives of four Americans held hostage in Lebanon and two others missing in that war-torn country.

Jacobsen and nine other members of the hostages’ families gathered again here last month to knock on office doors at the White House, Capitol Hill and Middle East embassies. It was their fourth trip, and they promise more until the hostages are safely released by their Moslem captors.

The families have tried to put aside their pain and frustration and devote themselves to keeping the plight of the hostages in the public consciousness.

“We have to maintain a sense of urgency. We want them (U.S. officials) to know that we want them to work more diligently than ever,” Jacobsen said after the families met at the White House with National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter.

The four hostages are David P. Jacobsen, Eric Jacobsen’s father and the administrator of American University Hospital in Beirut; Thomas Sutherland, the dean of agriculture at the same university; Father Lawrence Jenco, a Roman Catholic priest, and Terry Anderson, the Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press.

The university’s librarian, Peter Kilburn, was kidnaped 13 months ago. His whereabouts and condition have never been known to U.S. officials. William Buckley, a diplomat, also was kidnaped, and it has been reported that he was killed. But the U.S. State Department has never been able to confirm that.

For relatives of the hostages, the mission is simple: Work constantly to keep the public aware of their plight.

“Right now I am more concerned with the news media. What happens if this isn’t news anymore?” asked Tom Anderson, a New York City police sergeant and cousin of Terry Anderson.

Jacobsen said, “You also have to control your emotions. When we go talk to people, we have to be rational and reasonable in order to get our point across.”

For Sue Franceschini, Jenco’s sister, that is sometimes difficult. Since Jenco vanished in Beirut on Jan. 8, 1985, Franceschini and her family have had few clues about his fate. Sleepless nights are common for them.

Sitting in the Jesuit dining hall on the ancient, red-stoned Georgetown University campus, Franceschini said: “The long waits between news are very hard . . . not knowing what will happen from one day to the next. It’s very hard to understand all of this because the hostages are only innocent victims.”

Visited 50 Cities

During the past few months, Jenco family members have traveled to 50 cities in 17 states to talk about the American hostages in Beirut. They claim relatives in 47 states and usually can find a relative to stay with. And with the other relatives, the Jencos have hounded officials for information.

“The one thing that we have accomplished is to stay in personal contact with people,” Franceschini said. “If we had stayed home and just called, nothing would have happened.”

Members of the Jenco family, which includes a brother, Joe Jenco, another sister, May Mihelich, and her son, Andy Mihelich, appear often in public to appeal for help in the release of the hostages. Jenco has called the State Department every Friday for the past year to learn everything he can.

“They have the file ready every Friday morning because they know I’ll be calling,” Jenco said.

Jenco has become so adept at traveling and talking about the hostage situation that he is considering running for public office.

The other Jenco family members in Joliet, Ill., meet at the Mihelich home every Monday night to pray and to discuss new ideas.

The Jenco family and the others are always readily accessible to the news media.

Jacobsen and his brother, Paul, also have written a song about the hostages. When it is released in Los Angeles in a few weeks, they hope radio stations throughout the country will play it.

Jacobsen spends only about half his time at the medical supply and research company where he works. He spends most of his free time on the telephone or arranging appearances. The families also stay in almost daily contact with each other.

Families Draw Close

It is their common, emotional predicament that has drawn the hostages’ families especially close. Their goal is not just the release of their own relatives, but of all the hostages.

Last month, the families welcomed a new ally in Washington.

Joan Sutherland, 21, the daughter of Thomas Sutherland, joined them for the first time. The airline reservation agent, who moved to Redondo Beach from Fort Collins, Colo., two months ago, had been reluctant to help the cause. Her mother, June Sutherland, has remained in Beirut since her husband’s abduction last June 9.

Joan Sutherland said she was “overwhelmed” by her first encounter with Washington officials but was glad to “finally decide to fight for my father . . . and the others.”

Throughout a hectic day of meetings on Capitol Hill and at the White House and Middle East embassies, Franceschini kept close to Sutherland, often hugging her and assuring her.

“I got a lot of support from the other families. I’m very glad to finally know them,” Sutherland said.

Despite their diligence, there are moments of doubt. Lunching at Georgetown University with the others, Tom Anderson wondered if the Washington meetings and the public appearances really helped.

“Maybe it just makes me feel good,” he said.

But when Franceschini told how much the Jenco family travels, Anderson told her: “Yeah, you’re right. The personal contact is very important. That’s when they listen to you.”

It was not until last July, when a TWA jetliner carrying 52 Americans was hijacked in Greece and taken to Algeria, that America focused on the hostages in Lebanon, Franceschini said.

“It took the TWA hostages to draw attention to us,” she said. “It took a tragedy before the national news media talked to us. That’s very sad.”

However, some encouragement has come from Poindexter, who recently took over as President Reagan’s chief national security adviser. The families said Poindexter gave them confidential information to show that the U.S. government is trying to secure the hostages’ release.

“He gave us a better understanding of the situation, and that helps us with our lines of communication,” Jacobsen said.

Patty Little, Peter Kilburn’s niece, said: “It lifted my soul. I feel things are looking much better.”

No Information

Unlike the other families, Little and her brother, Tim Kilburn, have never received information about their uncle’s whereabouts in Lebanon, not even unconfirmed rumors. State Department officials, despite Little’s repeated calls, have been able to provide no clues to the whereabouts of Kilburn, who disappeared in Beirut 13 months ago.

“Not knowing where Peter is and knowing that he is not with the others has made it a lot harder for us to deal with,” said Patty Little, 28, who lives in Aptos, near Santa Cruz. “But I’m very hopeful that he will be released along with the others.”

The families of the other four hostages at least know that their relatives are together and reportedly safe. They know that from letters the hostages have been able to write to them and from British envoy Terry Waite’s direct negotiations with the Islamic Jihad, the Moslem group that has claimed responsibility for the kidnapings.

Three times in the past four months, Waite has held secret negotiations in Beirut with the captors. The last attempt failed on Christmas Eve, but Waite is still working to win their release.

“He’s the only one who has made direct contact with the captors, so he still has the best chance to succeed,” Jacobsen said.

And this last Washington trip, Jenco said, “has built up our hopes. Before, when we started making these trips, we couldn’t even get near the White House. Now we can go in and talk to somebody.”

Shortly before the families’ last meeting in Washington, May Mihelich leaned against the brown plywood wall of the Algerian Embassy’s plain reception room. The grandmother, weary from a hectic day of meetings in which there had been no time for lunch, was pensive.

She was asked whether she was despondent or discouraged.

“No, I was just thinking of how much more work we have to do,” Mihelich replied. “Sometimes it’s tiring and very frustrating, but we’re not giving up.

“We have not fallen. We’re still on our feet . . . fighting for them.”