Relatives of Beirut Hostages Criticize Raid on Libya

For Patty Little, who endured 17 months of pain and worry before her kidnaped uncle turned up dead on a Beirut street last week, the ordeal is far from over. She still has “family” held hostage in that war-torn country.

Little, a housewife from Aptos, Calif., is frightened that the five remaining Americans missing in Lebanon could die.

Her uncle, Peter Kilburn, the former librarian at American University in Beirut, was killed by his Muslim captors last week in retaliation for the U.S. bombing of Libya. His body has been returned to San Francisco, where he will be buried on Tuesday.

“I feel like I have four members of my family still (in Lebanon),” Little said Thursday at a Santa Ana restaurant. “That’s what happens when you get close to someone going through the same ordeal. We’ve all been through this together. It’s not over yet for me.”

Two-Day Visit

Little, 28, and her husband, Lance, were in Orange County Thursday along with members of other hostage families. The two-day visit included a Thursday night dinner to honor the Hy-Lond Convalescent Home in Westminster. The staff and residents of the home “adopted” the hostages last summer and have held daily prayer sessions to ask for their safe release.

Today, the families will plant seven trees at Liberty Park in Westminster in honor of Kilburn and the rest of the hostages.

Benjamin Weir, a Presbyterian minister held captive in Beirut but released last October, will moderate today’s ceremonies. He was with Little on Thursday and criticized President Reagan for the bombing raid on Libya last week.

“It is apparent to me that the jeopardy and danger of the other hostages has highly increased,” Weir said. “I think it is a very desperate situation.”

The minister said Kilburn’s death and the reported killing of Alec Collett, a British journalist married to an American, added to the predicament of the four American hostages the Islamic Jihad, a radical Shia Muslim group, claim to hold.

The four missing Americans are David P. Jacobsen of Huntington Beach, the administrator of American University Hospital; Father Lawrence Jenco, a Roman Catholic priest; Terry A. Anderson, a correspondent for the Associated Press; and Thomas Sutherland, the dean of the university’s agriculture school.

William Buckley, a U.S. diplomat, is also missing in Beirut, and there have been no reports on his whereabouts or condition.

Tom Anderson, a New York City police sergeant and cousin of Terry Anderson, also agreed Thursday that Reagan should have not ordered the air strikes against Libya if the military maneuvers would endanger the American hostages.

“The feeling of my entire family is that the bombings were ill-advised in regards to the hostages,” Anderson said.

Little said she was not angry with the President but felt “very disappointed in him. I would have wanted for him to have shown more concern and care (for the hostages). I feel really let down by him.”

Eric Jacobsen, whose father is one of the Beirut hostages, was not present with the other family members Thursday but said in an earlier interview that he felt “traumatized” by the recent developments in the Middle East.

Safe Release

He said the families, who had planned to be in Orange County before the bombing of Libya, would use the opportunity to discuss new ideas to get the Reagan Administration to negotiate for the safe release of the hostages.

“With this terrible turn of events, it is all the more crucial,” Jacobsen said.

Despite the aggravation of the past two weeks, especially the deaths of Kilburn, Collett and two other British citizens, Anderson said there was still hope the remaining hostages ultimately will be freed unharmed.

“I feel like we will see them again,” he said.

Jenco’s two sisters and brother arrived in Orange County late Thursday from their home in Joliet, Ill. Sutherland’s daughter, Joan, also was expected to attend today’s ceremonies.