Hostages’ Milestones Passing Quietly in Beirut : Fates of Anderson and Waite Remain Ensnared in the Web of World Politics

Lebanon is passing two milestones this week, but what with Syrian troops occupying West Beirut, Christian and Muslim politicians wrangling over a political settlement and a sinking economy, the events are going almost unnoticed.

It was on an overcast morning two years ago Monday that Terry A. Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent of the Associated Press, finished a tennis game in West Beirut and was on his way home for a shower when gunmen bundled him into the back of a green Mercedes-Benz and sped off.

And it was eight weeks ago today that Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite disappeared while on his mission to gain the release of foreign hostages in Lebanon.

Anderson, from Ohio and now 39 year old, has become the longest-held foreign hostage in Lebanon, with no prospect in sight for his imminent release.

Waite, the personal envoy of the Archbishop of Canterbury, traveled to Lebanon in January in hopes of freeing Anderson and another American, Thomas Sutherland, 55, the dean of agriculture of the American University of Beirut, who was abducted in June, 1985.

Waite dropped from sight while on his way to meet with the kidnapers, members of a fundamentalist Shia Muslim band of terrorists calling themselves Islamic Jihad, or Islamic Holy War.

There are reports that during his travels he was taken into custody by another group of Shia extremists known as Hezbollah (Party of God)--which, like Islamic Jihad, is believed to be loyal to Iran. Walid Jumblatt, the Druze warlord who was nominally in charge of Waite’s security, was moved to remark later that “God’s envoy is being held by God’s people.”

On Monday, the official Iranian news agency said that the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Hashemi Rafsanjani, has promised to help the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert A. K. Runcie, find Waite. According to the agency, Rafsanjani was responding to a letter in which Runcie pledged to try to locate at least one Iranian believed seized by Christian militiamen in Lebanon.

Those holding Anderson and Sutherland have repeatedly demanded that 17 Arab extremists, jailed in Kuwait for car-bomb attacks in December, 1983, be released as the price for freeing their captives.

However, events have shown that the hostages’ predicament is also inextricably linked to factors such as the long-running Iran-Iraq War and the possibility of a power struggle in Tehran, the Iranian capital.

President Reagan has acknowledged that his Administration sold arms to Iran in hopes of obtaining the release of all the American hostages in Lebanon, of whom there are now eight.

At one point, Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, the now-dismissed National Security Council aide, traveled to Tehran in the apparent hope of closing a deal for the release, but the purported agreement collapsed after David P. Jacobsen, a hospital administrator at the American University, was released last November.

Anderson has been allowed to send out letters to his family, and he made a poignant videotaped appeal to Reagan last October to step up his efforts on the hostages’ behalf.

“To a considerable extent, those of us who live here in Beirut feel helpless to help Terry,” said Robert Fisk, Middle East correspondent for the Times of London, who was a close friend of the missing journalist and who has worked to help free him.

Fisk noted that although the State Department recently warned Americans to stay away from Lebanon, Anderson was kidnaped at a time when Beirut was still considered a relatively safe place for journalists.

“I don’t think anyone ever dreamed it (Anderson’s captivity) would last two years,” Fisk said. “I remember when he sent the letter to his family in October, 1985, saying he hoped to be home by Christmas. And now we’re in 1987.”

Anderson has two children, including a baby daughter who was born while he was in captivity and whom he has seen, according to his statements, only on a special television broadcast.

On Friday, a State Department spokesman in Washington called on the kidnapers to release their hostages, whom he described as “the innocent victims of a cruel and cynical act of terrorism.”

On Monday, about 250 friends, colleagues and relatives of Anderson, Sutherland and the other American hostages gathered in Valley Forge, Pa., for a prayer breakfast sponsored by the American Baptist Church, wire services reported. Among those attending was a former hostage, Father Lawrence M. Jenco.

Most Arab and Western analysts here agree that the fate of Anderson and the other hostages has become mired in the tangled Washington scandal over the clandestine sale of arms to Iran and the diversion of profits to the U.S.-backed Nicaraguan guerrillas.

At least two freed hostages--Jacobsen and Jenco--may have been released as a result of U.S. arms shipments to Iran. The arms included anti-tank missiles and spare parts for anti-aircraft missiles.

Having used hostages to obtain American arms in the past, it was argued, Iran may hold out for at least a partial settlement of its other claims against Washington before exerting pressure on its followers in Lebanon to free their remaining hostages. A total of 26 foreigners are believed to be in the hands of various Lebanese terrorist factions.

For the extremist groups involved, the hostages may also be regarded as protection against attacks, which makes it difficult to persuade the captors to surrender all their prisoners.

Three weeks ago, Syria sent more than 7,000 troops into West Beirut, and they cleared battling militia forces from the streets of the predominantly Muslim sector of the city.

However, the Syrians have not moved against the southern suburbs, where Hezbollah is believed to have substantial armed strength.

The suburbs are believed to be the most likely place that foreign hostages are being held by the pro-Iranian Shia groups. Some analysts believe that by continuing to hold hostages there, groups such as Hezbollah will feel safer against a Syrian move, but other diplomats here believe that such considerations will not count for much in Syrian calculations.

The analysts noted that no group has claimed responsibility for kidnaping Waite.

According to one theory, Waite was taken prisoner because of a factional dispute within Hezbollah, with one of the factions seizing him in order to discourage further negotiations over the hostages.

In addition to Sutherland, who is from Fort Collins, Colo., and Anderson, the Americans believed held in Lebanon are Frank H. Reed, 53, of Malden, Mass., director of a private school in West Beirut; Joseph J. Cicippio, 56, of Valley Forge, Pa., acting controller of the American University; Edward A. Tracy, 56, of Rutland, Vt., an illustrator and book salesman; Alann Steen, 48, of Boston, a journalism professor at Beirut University College; Jesse Turner, 39, assistant instructor of mathematics and computer sciences at Beirut University College, and Robert Polhill, 53, assistant professor of business studies at Beirut University College.