British man Kember seen in al-Jazeera video

Al-Jazeera television today broadcast a 25-second, silent videotape showing Briton Norman Kember and two other hostage Christian Peacemaker activists in Iraq.

Al-Jazeera said the men asked their governments and countries in the Persian Gulf to work for their release.

Maxine Nash, a member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams in Baghdad, said the missing man was American Tom Fox, 54, of Virginia. The hostages shown were Norman Kember, 74, of London, and Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32.

The hostages disappeared on November 26 and the previously unknown Swords of Righteousness Brigades had claimed responsibility. The tape broadcast today carried a February 28 date.

The four were last seen together on a videotape, also broadcast by al-Jazeera, on January 28. It was dated seven days earlier.

Today’s tape showed the three men sitting in chairs and speaking, although there was no sound.

One of those on the tape had white hair and a slight beard, the two others had dark hair and full beards.

In the January 28 broadcast the al-Jazeera newsreader said the hostage-takers issued a statement saying it was the “last chance” for US and Iraqi authorities to “release all Iraqi prisoners in return of freeing the hostages, otherwise their fate will be death”. No deadline was set.

Christian Peacemaker Teams, a Chicago-based organisation, has been working in Iraq since October 2002, investigating allegations of abuse against Iraqi detainees by American and Iraqi forces.

Its teams host human rights conferences in conflict zones, promoting peaceful solutions.