The brother of Kenneth Bigley, the British hostage being held in Iraq, said this morning he was 99 per cent sure his brother was still alive but said Prime Minister Tony Blair should resign.
Speaking on RTE Radio's
Todayprogramme, Mr Paul Bigley said he had "bona fide" contacts which indicated that his brother was still alive. However, Mr Bigley admitted that he had no validation of his claim from the British Foreign Office.
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Mr Bigley said he appreciated Mr Blair's position and he did not expect the Prime Minister to negotiate. "If you put yourself in Mr Blair's position, a statesman, a man of power, he has also limitations. He can't really pick the phone up."
"All I'm asking is simply communication. Have somebody who is sitting on their fat bums in the foreign office send a fax to Al Jazerra, like people in Dublin are doing and in the whole of Ireland. They don't even do that. A gesture, an olive branch, a non-committing fax or email. Nothing."
Speaking earlier to BBC television Mr Bigley called for Mr Blair to resign. "Tony Blair is a gentleman and a statesman, [but] I think his sell-by date has gone and he has to go. There has to be a change of face, a change of policy, a change of dialogue."
Mr Blair has said his government is doing everything it "properly" can to secure Ken's release, but hasn't indicated any shift in his policy of refusing to negotiate with kidnappers, he said.
Mr Bigley has urged Mr Blair to make a personal plea for this brother's release, saying silence from the prime minister would be "the kiss of death" for the hostage.
"I truly believe my brother is alive. I want him home and I will not stop until the boy is home," he said today. "Ken will come home to us all. Ken is only a little person in this whole affair."
Mr Ken Bigley (62) and two American colleagues were kidnapped from their home in Baghdad last week. Both Americans have been beheaded, and gruesome videos made by the kidnappers have appeared on the Internet.