Kember back in Britain after hostage ordeal

Peace activist Norman Kember was back on British soil today after a 119-day hostage ordeal in Iraq.

Peace activist Norman Kember was back on British soil today after a 119-day hostage ordeal in Iraq.

The 74-year-old touched down at Heathrow Airport at 12.22pm today on a British Airways flight from Kuwait, after leaving Baghdad yesterday on a military transporter.

He was expected to make a statement to journalists at the airport before accompanying his wife Pat back to their home in leafy Pinner, north London.

But the veteran activist, who was freed in a multi-national military operation involving the SAS and other forces on Thursday, flies in to a cloud of controversy. He has been criticised for failing to publicly thank the soldiers who rescued him, and two fellow hostages.

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Yesterday Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Mike Jackson, said he was "saddened" at the apparent snub. Mr Kember was one of four westerners seized on November 26 while on a visit to support the Canada-based international peace group Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT).

Three days later, video footage released by a previously unknown group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness Brigade, showed Mr Kember, American Tom Fox, 54, and Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32.

Mr Fox was found shot dead in Baghdad earlier this month in the affluent Mansour district. There were signs that he had been beaten before being killed.

But according to Peggy Gish, a CPT member in Baghdad, Mr Kember and the two Canadians, who were also freed by special forces, did not appear to have been tortured or abused by their captors.

For much of the time they were not tied up and the kidnappers had provided Mr Kember with medication for an illness, she said.

Mr Kember is known to suffer from high blood pressure and an aneurysm.