The husband of Ms Margaret Hassan last night begged for the return of her body to let her "rest in peace" after the release of a video apparently showing her murder in Iraq. Frank Millar in London and Mark Brennock, Chief Political Correspondent, report.
As the British embassy in Baghdad reportedly confirmed that the video showed the brutal death of the 59-year-old aid worker abducted by an unknown group in Baghdad on October 19th, the Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, said: "To kidnap and kill anyone is inexcusable. But it is repugnant to commit such a crime against a woman who has spent most of her life working for the good of the people of Iraq."
And as her family in London and Dublin confirmed their hearts "broken", the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, the President, Mrs McAleese, and the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, led the tributes to the "friend of the Arab world" who had Irish, British and Iraqi nationality.
Mrs McAleese said she was greatly saddened by the reports of Ms Hassan's execution, while the Taoiseach said her kidnappers stood condemned "by everyone throughout the entire international community."
Mr Blair sent his sympathy to her family, saying he shared their abhorrence at her treatment after the Arabic news channel Al Jazeera said it had a copy of the videotape for several days showing a militant firing a pistol into the back of the head of a blindfolded woman wearing an orange jumpsuit.
Al-Jazeera did not broadcast the video. A spokesman, Mr Jihad Ballout, said the station was not initially sure of its authenticity.
"We invited British diplomatic officials to come and view it in Doha, Qatar, with the aim of helping us ascertain whether it was Ms Hassan or not," he added. "It's now likely that the image depicts Mrs Hassan."
Speaking in Baghdad, her husband, Mr Tahseen Ali Hassan, begged for the return of his wife's body.
Still desperately clinging to some vestige of hope, he said: "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. I beg those people who took Margaret to tell me what they have done with her. They can tell me. They can call the helpline. I need her.
"I need her back to rest in peace. Margaret lived with me in Iraq for 30 years. She dedicated her life to serving the Iraqi people. Please now, please return her to me."
Immediately after that appeal was broadcast, Ms Hassan's brother and sisters, Michael, Deirdre, Kathryn and Geraldine Fitzsimons, issued a statement through the Foreign Office. "Our hearts are broken," they said. "We have kept hoping for as long as we could, but now we have to accept that Margaret has probably gone, and at last her suffering has ended."
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Ahern, last night called for immediate clarification of what had happened to Ms Hassan.
"I am deeply shocked by the reports of Margaret Hassan's murder and I want to condemn in the strongest possible terms this appalling and senseless act", he said.
He said he had met Ms Hassan's sisters and brother two weeks ago, "and I was enormously impressed by their dignity and fortitude during this terrible ordeal. I know that the thoughts and prayers of all the people of Ireland are with them at this tragic time."
The Labour Party's foreign affairs spokesman, Mr Michael D. Higgins, said it now appeared she had been killed, and said this was "an appalling action . . . No cause is served by it. How could it? Margaret Hassan was somebody who gave her life to the most vulnerable people of Iraq, in the worst of times, during the sanctions, before the war, right through the most recent war and into the present period."
She had been part of Iraq for 30 years and for over a decade had headed one of the most important agencies providing therapeutic feeding, clean water, medicine and hospital services for those who needed it.
Her employer, the aid agency Care International said Ms Hassan was an extraordinary woman who dedicated her life to the poor and disadvantaged in Iraq, particularly to children.