Waite’s Death Told; Officials Are Skeptical

A local newspaper claimed Sunday that missing hostage negotiator Terry Waite has died of natural causes, but Lebanese and Syrian officials in Beirut discounted the report.

In a Beirut-datelined story, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Anbaa quoted an unidentified Lebanese political figure as saying that he has “reliable information that Waite died a natural death either last Tuesday or Wednesday.”

Asked to offer evidence of the death, the source was quoted as saying: “I am under no obligation to do so. I knew of the death by accident.”

Waite, 48, is the personal envoy of Archbishop of Canterbury Robert A. K. Runcie, the spiritual head of the Church of England. He disappeared in Beirut on Jan. 20 after leaving his hotel in the Lebanese capital for a meeting with kidnapers of Western hostages.

No group claimed to be holding Waite, and it was not confirmed that he was kidnaped. Wildly divergent reports on his fate have not been substantiated.

In London, Church of England spokeswoman Eve Keatly said Runcie had no word that Waite is dead.

“This is a very distressing report. We have no confirmation whatsoever that there is any truth in it,” she said.

The Syrian military command in Muslim West Beirut and various Muslim militia officials in the Lebanese capital said they doubt the Al Anbaa report.

Waite began international diplomatic missions on behalf of the Church of England in 1981, negotiating the release of seven British hostages in Iran and Libya.