Freed Hostage Tells of Seeing American Captives : Mideast: Keenan is reunited with his two sisters. He describes his contacts with Terry Anderson and Thomas Sutherland in Lebanon.

Freed Irish hostage Brian Keenan returned to his homeland Saturday after telling reporters that he saw American hostages Terry Anderson and Thomas Sutherland during his four-year captivity in Lebanon and that both had been well.

Keenan, 39, looking pale but otherwise physically fit as he stepped tentatively from an Irish government plane, had an emotional reunion earlier Saturday with his two sisters in the Syrian capital of Damascus, nearly 24 hours after he was freed by his captors in Beirut.

Keenan did not say when he had seen the two Americans. He described Anderson as being comforted by a picture of his daughter, Sulome, and said that Sutherland entertained his fellow hostages with jokes and stories.

He said that he had seen British hostage John McCarthy only two days earlier but did not mention any other hostages.

Keenan, a professor from Belfast, was seized on April 11, 1986, as he walked to the American University in Beirut to teach an English class.

Keenan, his hair cut short and his beard neatly trimmed, struggled to hold back tears as he sat between his sisters, Elaine Spence and Brenda Gillham. He read a statement to reporters but took no questions.

“I am delighted to be with my sisters,” he said, his voice breaking.

“On my way here, I thought of what I was going to do,” he said. “And, finally, I said to myself I would eat all the food in the world, drink all the drink in the world and make love to all the women in the world and then maybe I’ll get a good night’s sleep.”

Keenan’s sisters arrived in Syria with Irish Foreign Minister Gerry Collins and a doctor and a nurse. They all flew to Ireland three hours after Keenan was formally turned over to Collins at the Syrian Foreign Ministry.

“I saw Terry Anderson some time ago,” Keenan told reporters. “He’s in good form . . . and he appreciates the letters that he received from his family.”

Of the 13 Westerners believed held by Muslim extremists in Lebanon, Anderson, the chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press, has been a captive the longest. He was abducted on March 16, 1985. Anderson and Sutherland are among six Americans remaining in captivity.

Of Sutherland, 56, of Ft. Collins, Colo., Keenan said: “He’s well. He has told us an entire repertoire of jokes . . . and Dr. Sutherland is in good health and regularly exercising.” Sutherland was kidnaped on June 9, 1985.

Anderson has never seen his 5-year-old daughter, who was born nearly three months after he was abducted. But, Keenan said: “He has a picture of his daughter, Sulome, which is some great companionship for him.”

Anderson’s sister, Peggy Say, told of Keenan’s comments, said: “I’m anxious to talk to Brian and to get more details about Terry’s mental, emotional and physical health.

“Of course, I’m very pleased for the Keenan sisters and their family. But, unfortunately, our experience has been in the past that when a single hostage is released, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we are going to see another one for some time,” she said by telephone from her home in Kentucky.

Keenan also said he had seen McCarthy, a reporter for the London-based Worldwide Television News, and said that he was well.

McCarthy, 33, was captured on April 17, 1986. Other Britons being held are Terry Waite, the envoy of the archbishop of Canterbury, and Alec Collett and Jack Mann.

Keenan was handed over Friday to Syrian army officers in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, after a little-known group calling itself the said he would be released. Until the kidnapers’ statement Friday, no group had claimed responsibility for Keenan from the time he was abducted until he was freed.

No reason has been given for the release of Keenan.