IRAQ-It was reported last month that CARE director, Margaret Hassan was kidnapped on her way to work at CARE’s Iraq office. This week her abductors reportedly released a video to the Arab news station, Al-Jazeera, of the killing of the 59-year-old humanitarian worker.
It was reported that Hassan had been working in Iraq for more than 25 years, and was an Iraqi national. Hassan has worked for CARE, a humanitarian organization fighting to eradicate global poverty, almost since it’s inception in Iraq in 1991.
Hassan’s husband is still unsure of the validity of the surfaced videotape. In a CNN report, Tahsin Hassan told Reuters in Baghdad “I have been told that there is a video of Margaret which appears to show her murder. The video may be genuine but I do not know.”
At the time of Hassan’s abduction there were mass evacuations of journalists, humanitarian workers and security personnel because of increasing threats by insurgents. Hassan reportedly, never considered leaving Iraq even with the evident growth in threats. In an October 20 news article by the BBC, Hassan remained in the country throughout the Gulf War and last year’s bombings.
In a statement issued to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office press office, Hassan’s family stated, “Our hearts are broken. We have kept hoping for as long as we could, but we now have to accept that Margaret has probably gone and at last her suffering has ended… But we cannot believe how anyone could do this to our kind, compassionate sister. The gap she leaves will never be filled.”