Fears Grow Over Waite’s Whereabouts : Anglican Envoy Missing for Week on Hostage Mission

Fears that Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite, in Lebanon to try to arrange the release of Western hostages, has been detained grew today as a Beirut newspaper reported that all attempts over the last week to establish communication with him had failed.

Waite, a lay envoy for the Archbishop of Canterbury, has not been seen in public since Jan. 20, when he set out from his hotel in Muslim West Beirut for a meeting with the captors of two Americans.

It was the longest he has remained underground in his five trips to Lebanon to negotiate freedom for hostages. Kuwait’s official news agency KUNA said Monday night that the Muslim kidnapers with whom Waite was negotiating had placed him under house arrest in a secret location.

The agency quoted unidentified sources close to the negotiations as saying, “(The kidnapers) detained him and put him under forced habitation after his attempts to reach a quick agreement were snarled.”

‘Urgent Inquiries’

In London, the Anglican Church said it was making “urgent inquiries” about Waite’s whereabouts. The British Foreign Office said it was “in contact with Terry Waite’s bodyguards seeking clarification of this report.”

Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie, in his first public comment since Waite embarked on this mission, said that he was “greatly concerned” about his envoy’s safety but that he had “no direct evidence” to confirm a report that Waite was under house arrest.

“Needless to say we continue to check with our contacts,” Runcie said.

In Washington, a White House official, speaking on condition that he not be named, told an ABC news correspondent that it was feared Waite is a captive “but no one wants to say so out loud because that would make it more difficult for his captors to release him.”

Druze Won’t Comment

Spokesmen for the Progressive Socialist Party, a Druze militia that has been in charge of guarding Waite, refused to comment on the Kuwaiti report.

The leftist Beirut daily As-Safir said today that when Waite’s Druze bodyguards drove him to a secret location in the area of the American University of Beirut on Jan. 20, he rejected their attempts to stay with him.

As-Safir, quoting unidentified security sources, said Waite went into an apartment building and then emerged to demand that his Druze escort leave him and return to the hotel.

The guards called their chief by telephone, and he rejected Waite’s request, the newspaper said. But Waite insisted on being left, saying he needed to go alone outside Beirut to renew secret negotiations with the captors, it said.

Meanwhile today, police said a Saudi Arabian became the 11th foreigner kidnaped in Beirut since Waite arrived from London on Jan. 12.

Police said three gunmen seized Khaled Deeb on Beirut’s airport highway near the Palestinian refugee camp of Borj el Brajne at 10 p.m. Monday.