European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 15, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 8 life after Lebanon the stars and stripes sunday december 15,1991 the mystery woman in Anderson s life by Marjorie Williams the Washington Post the other women in his life Are so famous. Peggy say is the stoic sister who kept Terry Andersons memory alive through the six years and nine months of his Captivity in Lebanon by sharing her pain with reporters. Salome is the beguiling 6-year-old who never met her daddy until this month but who danced and Sang before the world in Hopes that her videotaped image would reach him in his prison. The spotlight has almost entirely passed by the third woman in Terry Andersons life a perhaps because she has deliberately eluded it. In the footage of Andersons triumphant passage from Damascus Syria to Wiesbaden Germany to new York and Washington she is the Happy presence at the Edge of the Frame 41-year-old Madeleine Bas Sil a native of Lebanon and the Mother of Salome. A she was a she still is a a very quiet lady Quot said Chris Drake who As Abc Bureau chief in Beirut in the Early �?T80s employed Bassil As a translator and radio Monitor. Colleagues in the tight nit world of foreign reporting treat Bassil with delicacy and protectiveness. For one thing friends said she has guarded her privacy zealously in Large part to ensure that Salome has As Normal an upbringing As possible under the circumstances. And for another thing no one is quite sure How to describe in the Clumsy shorthand of Modem journalism the awkward personal situation in which Bassil found herself six years ago. On March 16, 1985, when the associated press correspondent was snatched from a Beirut Street Bassil was More than six months pregnant with his child. They lived together and had made plans to marry. But his divorce was not yet final. In other words Madeleine Bassil is Terry Andersons Fiance but Terry Anderson is still technically a married Man. His wife Mihoko known As Mickey left Lebanon in 1984 with the couples daughter Gabrielle now 15. Friends said they soon began proceedings toward an amicable divorce a but that the paperwork moved with agonizing slowness Between Tokyo and War torn Lebanon. For the past six years a has split Andersons salary equally Between Bassil and Andersons wife who lives with Gabrielle in Tokyo. The unresolved situation was a particularly hard because Terry was what we called a straight Arrow kid Quot says husband David told the Washington Post last year. A a he a been married for 20 years from the time he was 18.&Quot Anderson and his first wife met when he was a Marine stationed in Japan with the armed forces radio and television service. He and Bassil met some time after 1982, when he was stationed in Beirut and Bassil returned to Lebanon following years of residence in Africa and Europe. Friends know Little about her background beyond an awareness that her family was maronite christians. They say she is fluent in French English and arabic. Said Drake a there was never any doubt that child or no child they were planning to get married at the beginning of Andersons Captivity Bassily a friends encouraged her to stay out of the Public Eye. Many in the press corps were concerned Drake said that Andersons captors might become angry if they knew that their american prisoner had fathered a child by an unmarried lebanese woman. Bassil joined say in the United states where Salome was born on Andersons 83rd Day in Captivity. In March 1986, she moved to Nicosia Cyprus where Many of her friends from the press corps were based. A the Best thing she thought was to Madeleine Bassil shown with daughter Salome was left in an awkward situation when Terry Anderson was kidnapped in Lebanon nearly seven years ago. Come to Cyprus and be close to Beirut close to Terry Quot says scheherazade Fara Marzi a former a reporter in Beirut and a close Friend of Bassil. She left most of the High profile lobbying to say. But three or four times a year a Christmas Andersons birthday us lome so she would try to get some message to Anderson often in the form of a videotape of their daughter. Faramarzi describes Bassil As a a very very Down to Earth person. Very Strong. The worst of her depression was she Felt so bad that Terry see Salome among the hardest things she adds was explaining the situation to Salome. A she always told her. That her father was in Lebanon Quot faramarzi says. A and he was going to come Back but he was being held by bad faramarzi spoke by Telephone to Anderson and Bassil after his release a a she a finding Teny amazingly not changed unchanged in a Way. She feels she can pick up the pieces very an elusive concept for sex hostage Belfast Northern Ireland apr through four nerve racking years Brenda Gillham and Elaine Spence yearned to know the whereabouts of their brother a hostage in Lebanon. Sixteen months after Brian Keenan was released the frustrated Sisters still Don t know. As quickly As they were reunited they lost him again. Except for spending three Days at his Mother s Belfast Home after his release in August 1990, the 41-year-old Keenan has lived the life of a Nomad. A Brian had to get away when he came Home. He had to be alone a he explained that to us Quot Gillham his elder sister said in an interview. A it was a very very hard thing for us to Lake. When you be dedicated Avi years of your life and you just want to hold onto Keenan has kept no fixed address. He is believed to have sought Solitude in Rural Western Ireland working on a took about his experiences. Keenan surfaces from time to time at Charity events and pubs in Dublin and Belfast. But even his family does not know How to Contact him directly. They must Call his London agent and leave a message like the rest. He has asked old friends not to talk about him. He has told his Sisters Quot Healing is easier when you Are left to do it Long before he was kidnapped on his Way to a lec Ture at the american University in Beirut Keenan was drawn to roads rarely travelled. Brought up As a working class protestant in East Belfast he embraced Irish literature and gaelic culture enthusiasms of the roman Catholic minority. He traded one bitterly divided Community for another in his move to Beirut where he taught groups of Chris Keenan Tian and Muslim Stu dents about cultural plurality. Keenan a suffering in Captivity appeared Only to steel his principles. Of his kidnappers he said �?o1 cannot condemn a Man because he is different from me. Such conceit is his Public words have not tempered the rejection Felt by his Sisters. They have told their Story in a recently published Book for Briana a Sake by Irish journalist Anne Maguire. Keenan a family suffered from the peculiarities of Northern Ireland. He had travelled to Lebanon on an Irish passport. Citizens of Northern Ireland can hold either an Irish or British passport but protestants muttered that Keenan a Choice was a betrayal. The Sisters lobbied the Irish government relentlessly. Supported by a few friends they travelled to Paris and Tehran Iran to try to convince his captors that he was Irish not British. They were taunted by fellow protestants and shunned by pro British politicians. A gasoline bomb was thrown near their Home. In turn they received unwanted help notably from sinn fein the political Wing of the Irish Republican army which sent a delegation to Beirut in 1987. The tensions did not Abate when Keenan made his triumphal return a to Dublin the capital of the Irish Republic. Keenan later appeared at a reception with leading sinn fein figures in Belfast insisting that in keeping with his values he would shake anyone a hand. Interestingly the Book details a rare reunion last june when the former hostage confronted his preference for friends Over family. A four and a half years of living with no human warmth imprints on you deeply Quot he told his Sisters. A you can to suddenly turn around and be this person that they the Public want you to be. In be been a loner All my the Sisters said they have come to accept in Spencer a half joking words that their brother is a the same stubborn old git he always was
