Care Australia expresses shock and dismay at Hassan’s death

Dan Buckley

Despite her limited personal links with Australia, CARE’s desperate campaign to free the 59-year-old humanitarian who spent 30 years helping Iraq’s poor made the news bulletins throughout Australia every night since her abduction on October 19.

CARE Australia, which ran the Iraq operation on behalf of the international body, said it was “shocked and appalled that this has been the outcome of her abduction.”

Church congregations in Australia had offered prayers for the release of Ms Hassan. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the murder was inexcusable, adding: “I extend my deepest sympathies to Margaret’s husband Tahseen, her family and friends and to CARE.

“Margaret dedicated her life to helping the poorest and most disadvantaged people in Iraq and her kidnapping and probable murder are most heinous and inexcusable crimes.

“The public outpouring of support in Iraq for her release demonstrated the Iraqi people’s deep appreciation of her dedication and work on their behalf.”

Two days after her kidnapping, Mr Downer said Australia was willing to negotiate the release of Ms Hassan and “plead” with Iraqi insurgents for her freedom.

Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, who founded CARE Australia and headed it and CARE International for many years during the 1990s, made an impassioned appeal for her freedom, but to no avail.

Ms Hassan worked as the director of CARE International’s Baghdad office - funded by CARE Australia - until being kidnapped as she drove to work.

Retired Australian army major Steve Pratt, a former CARE aid worker who was himself captured and imprisoned in Yugoslavia in 1999, described Ms Hassan as “a saint dedicated to helping the Iraqi people”.

Mr Pratt, who worked with her in Iraq in the early 1990s, said he was devastated by the news.

“She was a saint, she didn’t get involved in politics, and my view is that those virtues made her a tradable commodity,” he said.

CARE Australia said it was shocked and appalled by the death and its priority was now to support her husband Tahseen Hassan.

“The whole of CARE is in mourning,” it said.