Hostage Negotiation

"When dealing with a hostage negotiation, first one has to assess the nature of the kidnapping. Is it political or economic? The methodology of dealing with these two variants is very different. A while ago, my lay pastor from our Church in Baghdad was kidnapped. He is Iraqi and very soon after the kidnapping, the ransom demand was issued. Immediately we started negotiating for his release. It was successful in a matter of days.

When Westerners are taken, it is almost always for political reasons. Eventually a demand will come, a demand that is political and not financial. Usually what is requested is impossible to give. That is why having multiple methodologies at one’s disposal is so important. In order to be effective in hostage negotiations, relationships with people of influence is a necessary but not sufficient precondition. In Iraq, the next thing that is needed is a rapid assessment of who is responsible, Shia or Sunni. This assessment is based on things such as the location and techniques used in the kidnapping. Once this assessment is made, you go to your religious friends and engage with them. It is essential that these are people with whom you have a meaningful and substantive relationship. It is therefore important that these are people you see regularly in the good times and bad. When there is sufficient knowledge on the nature of the kidnappers, it becomes more obvious which people you need to deal with. I have never known people to refuse to help. What is clear is that political and governmental leaders alone do not have all the solutions. The main reason is that they do not know all the ‘bad’ people, and we hope they do not. Often the religious leaders can at least obtain access to the people who really have influence in kidnap cases and may well be the responsible party.

In the present case, which appeared early on to be related to the Mahdi Army, links were established with certain Shia clerics. The fact that the Mahdi Army is Shia does not immediately illuminate the complicated nature of the situation. The Mahdi army is no longer a unified militia. It takes times to assess the most likely group involved. Then you need to decide which group is most likely culpable and then determine which religious leaders are most likely to relate to the group. Once this assessment has been made, you then need to ascertain which leaders have the closest relationship with the suspects. The leaders who have the closest contacts with the suspects are likely to be the most successful. In this Oriental society, you look after and help people who have helped you.

So, after this assessment period, a process of engagement between the religious leaders and the radicals begins. This process always involves a long search for the right individual. If we can find the right person to engage with the radicals, then sometimes the engagement and requests will work, other times it will not. This is usually a prolonged process and always very difficult. You have to be prepared for many lies and must learn to distinguish between what is likely to be true and what is not. It is a long, hard process, mistakes are always made and it is not a science. It is difficult to use simple rules because every case is different.

I do not like this work, but I feel I have to do it. When it is people you know it is much more difficult and always more painful, yet we continue despite all the problems. Her Majesty’s Government consistently has a highly professional team available to work on the cases of British citizens. And though we do not work for them, we do cooperate with them as much as possible. At every stage, negotiation is multi-faceted and involves a wide variety of individuals. Mistakes are always made, but risks have to be taken. It is only in taking risks that progress is made and those we are looking for are returned. So in this present problem, we all take risks for the sake of life. The one thing that the Islamic leaders and I have in common is that we all believe in the Almighty. We therefore pray that the outcome will be swift and those missing will be returned safely."

Canon Andrew White