Lebanese Demand 400 Prisoners for Western Hostages

Lebanese militants declared Tuesday night that no Western hostages in Beirut will be freed until Israel releases 400 Arab prisoners, underlining their demand with a new photo of 52-year-old American captive Alann Steen.

The kidnapers’ message, delivered clandestinely to a Beirut newspaper, brought into the open recent signs of activity over the fate of 11 foreigners held hostage here. It was the first photo released of one of the six remaining American captives since Robert Polhill and Frank Reed were set free in April, 1990. Two Swiss and an Irishman were released later that year.

Since the end of the Persian Gulf War in February, statements by Iranian, Syrian and Lebanese officials have suggested the possibility of movement on the hostage issue, and some Lebanese Shiite Muslim leaders presumed to be in contact with the pro-Iranian kidnapers have hinted that conditions for a release are improving.

But the Tuesday night communique from Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine, which claims to hold Steen and fellow American Jesse Turner, 43, indicated that the pieces of a deal are not yet in place.

“What is new in this issue is that, in the first place, we refuse to discuss any release of the hostages except on the basis of (Israel) liberating 400 prisoners,” said the statement, delivered to the offices of the newspaper An Nahar in West Beirut. “Otherwise, let this issue remain hanging on the blackboard of destiny.”

The typewritten demand called the hostage crisis “an international enigma” and labeled it “a shining example of America’s impotence.”

The kidnapers declared, “America is still begging mediators here and there to help it obtain the release of the hostages for nothing in return, but our will and steadfastness are stronger, and we can never abandon our brethren detainees.”

The note was accompanied by a color photo of Steen, a bearded Bostonian, looking haggard and wearing a Lacoste sports shirt.

Steen, Turner and Polhill were snatched off the campus of Beirut University College, where they were teachers, by militants posing as security police on Jan. 24, 1987. Photos of hostages generally accompany communiques from kidnap cells for authentication, part of the now-formalized process of contact between kidnapers and the press.

In March, the Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine, one of a number of kidnap cells that Western intelligence officials say may be cover names for the same group of militants, issued a similar demand for release of Israeli-held prisoners.

The Jerusalem government has recently freed a number of Arabs--the total reached 120 on Monday, according to press accounts from Israel--but has denied any connection between its action and the Beirut hostages. The freed Arabs had been accused of taking part in the Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule in the occupied territories.

The Beirut kidnapers are Lebanese Shiites, according to Western intelligence reports, and diplomats in the Middle East say their main concern is Shiites held by the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army at Khiam prison north of the Israeli border.

Israel has made a standing offer to release Lebanese prisoners, including Sheik Abdul Karim Obeid, a leader of the fundamentalist Hezbollah movement, in return for all the Beirut hostages and seven Israelis believed held by Lebanese militiamen. The militants so far have refused the deal.

In a report from Beirut earlier Tuesday, Reuters news agency quoted a man described as a senior pro-Iranian leader as saying diplomatic efforts to resolve the issue have been stymied by the intransigence of U.S. and Iranian officials. “There is no progress, not even one percent, on the hostage issue,” Reuters quoted him as saying.