Video of Kidnaped Marine Demands Pullback by Israelis

The kidnapers of a U.S. Marine officer released a videotape today in which he recited their demands, including withdrawal by Israel from its border “security zone” in south Lebanon.

Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, who appeared to be reading from a text written by his captors, said President Reagan “has to take responsibility for the crimes he has committed against the oppressed people in the region.”

At the White House, presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater told reporters, “Obviously, (the statement) was made under duress. . . . We don’t make deals with terrorists, period.”

Higgins was abducted last Wednesday on a highway south of Tyre, the ancient port 50 miles south of Beirut.

A group calling itself the Organization of the Oppressed on Earth, which claimed responsibility for the abduction, released the 70-second tape.

The kidnaping increased friction between two Shia Muslim forces vying for domination in south Lebanon: the moderate Amal militia, which is trying to rescue Higgins, and Hezbollah, or Party of God, which is loyal to Iran and is believed to be an umbrella for groups holding most of the 25 foreigners missing in Lebanon, nine of them Americans.

Moved Despite Dragnet

Higgins was commander of the 76-man Observer Group-Lebanon attached to the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, the south Lebanon peacekeeping force.

Hezbollah claimed that the 43-year-old Marine from Danville, Ky., was removed from the area despite a dragnet by Amal and U.N. security officers. Release of the tape, delivered to a Western news agency in Beirut, suggested that the abductors were able to get Higgins out.

“It is hard to believe that a videotape can be produced if the captive is held in a dangerous hide-out,” said an informed Shia source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Many of Higgins’ taped remarks were in poor English, indicating that he did not write the message. His face was close to the camera, obscuring any background that might have indicated the location.

He appeared physically fit, was unshaven and wore the same dark green sweater as he was wearing when kidnapers stopped his car on the coastal highway.

A typewritten statement in Arabic that accompanied the tape renewed the charge that Higgins was a CIA agent using the U.N. job as a cover. Washington has denied this.

Same Conditions as Before

To begin the statement, the kidnaped Marine said:

“I, William Higgins, in order to get me released, these demands have to be met.”

He recited the same conditions his captors set forth in a statement Friday claiming responsibility for the abduction:

--Withdrawal of Israeli forces from the zone they maintain just north of the frontier as a buffer against cross-border guerrilla raids.

--Release of all Lebanese and Palestinian guerrillas from the Khiam prison and “all other prisons inside the Zionist regime in occupied Palestine.” Israel holds about 300 Lebanese and Palestinians at Khiam in the security zone.

--An end to U.S. intervention in Lebanon and to Middle East missions by American emissaries.