Beirut Papers Print Appeal by Hostage’s Sister for Talks

Beirut’s leading newspapers today printed an open letter from kidnaped American journalist Terry Anderson’s sister to his captors offering to travel to Lebanon to negotiate her brother’s release.

An Arabic translation of the letter from Peggy Say appeared on the front pages of the independent An-Nahar and the leftist As-Safir dailies.

State and privately owned radio stations in Beirut’s Muslim and Christian sectors also broadcast the appeal to Anderson’s Shia Muslim kidnapers.

“Tell me who you are willing to talk to about Terry’s freedom and the freedom of the other American hostages. Please name the person you would be willing to negotiate with. I will ask that person to meet with you,” Say wrote.

“Please let the conversation begin. I also would be willing to come to Beirut to talk with you. Silence will bring us nothing,” she said.

Anderson, 38, chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press, was kidnaped in West Beirut on March 16, 1985.

“Since his kidnaping,” Say wrote, “Terry and I have lost our father and brother, both of whom died this year of cancer. I thank Terry’s captors for their personal message of condolence to my family, but Terry and I need to be together to mourn our family losses and to pray together.”

In a telephone interview from her home in Batavia, N.Y., Say said she had been considering a letter to the captors for some time and earlier suggested that the Reagan Administration do the same.

“They told me they wouldn’t do that, so I decided to put one in on my own,” she said.