The Secret Hostage

The extraordinary secrecy surrounding Kiwi Islamic State (Isis) hostage Louisa Akavi, taken in 2013, is unprecedented.

It is difficult to think of another case in which the Government and media have co-operated over such a long period – nearly five years – to keep a secret. The secrecy was always believed necessary to keep Akavi safe.

There are many, many people who have worked tirelessly on Akavi’s case in the hope they might one day bring her home.

But, at the heart of this story is an even more extraordinary woman, a humble nurse who has survived a massacre and 17 tours of duty on the frontline, whose survival under unimaginable conditions is beyond words.

Akavi was there at the very beginning, in one of the first groups of Western hostages who ended up in the hands of Isis, and in the hands of a brutal and sadistic killer called Jihadi John. He executed his hostages by beheading them, feeding on the terrifying publicity it bought the brutal regime.

And she was believed still there at the end, nearly six years later when the crumbling forces of Islamic State made their bloody last stand at Baghuz, near the Iraqi border.

The last positive sighting of Akavi was in December or January. Since then, there has been silence.

That is what led Akavi’s employer, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), to take the step of naming her as an Isis hostage, breaking the long silence.

That decision is known to have caused disquiet in the New Zealand Government. For several weeks, there has been to-ing and fro-ing between ICRC and the Government to negotiate an extension.

It bought more time when there was a possible sighting in a displaced persons camp in Syria. But it was mistaken identity.

Weighing heavily on the Government’s mind was the chilling warning from Isis of retaliation for the Christchurch terror attack.

New Zealand’s terror threat level was raised to high in the wake of that attack and that remains in place.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s refusal to follow ICRC in naming Akavi is an indication of the level of the Government’s concern.

It has, however, now named Akavi – Foreign Minister Winston Peters issued a statement naming her immediately after the ICRC appeal for fresh information broke in The New York Times yesterday morning.

Stuff, like other New Zealand media, knew the ICRC intended naming her, but chose not to publish first because our original reasons for not publishing had not changed.

But it was acknowledged that once she was named by ICRC those conditions no longer existed.

In reality, while the ICRC and the Government might disagree over timing, it was always a case of when, not if, Akavi would be named.

There was never a time when any of us – Government or media – considered that Akavi would stay a secret forever if she was never found. That would have done her a huge injustice.

And the ICRC believes going public may encourage someone to come forward with information that either leads it to Akavi or gives her family closure.

All other avenues to find Akavi appear to have been exhausted.

Akavi’s family, who have been supported by the Red Cross throughout the past five years, appear to be on board with that view.

Akavi’s extraordinary survival through the long years of captivity does not surprise people who know her; over the past five years sources have talked about Akavi’s incredible resilience and strength.

She returned to the frontline after surviving a hospital massacre in Chechnya that killed her colleagues, including a fellow New Zealand nurse.

When asked about the massacre, Akavi said those risks were known and understood in her line of work.

The recent sightings of Akavi put her in places such as Al Susah and Al-Bukamal in late 2018, close to the SyrianIraqi border near the Euphrates.

Like earlier sightings at a hospital in Raqqa, she was known to be working in medical facilities and doing what she was trained for, nursing the wounded and sick. That is undoubtedly one reason for her incredible survival; her skills as a nurse were more valuable to Isis than her propaganda value as a hostage.

But the ICRC admits that, for the first time in a long time, it has lost track of her and there is a big question mark over her fate following the bloody battle in Baghuz.

Behind the scenes, meanwhile, there has been a huge and necessarily covert ‘‘New Zealand Inc’’ effort to find Akavi.

The years-long operation – codenamed Operation Rocks – included consular officials, intelligence agencies, police and elite New Zealand Special Air Service (SAS) soldiers operating out of a military base in Iraq, though it was never considered a badged SAS operation.

The hunt for intelligence about Akavi’s whereabouts was always with the aim of bringing her home.

But a failed United States military raid in 2014 appears to be the closest anyone came to freeing her. The raid appears to have missed her by just hours.

Stuff followed the efforts to find Akavi in an investigation lasting nearly five years, talking to officials and government ministers, as well as travelling to the US to talk to the family of a fellow hostage, Kayla Mueller.

Like her family, the ICRC, the Government and the many people who worked on Akavi’s story, we always hoped the ending once the story broke would be a happy one.

That is sadly not yet the case, but it is still important that Akavi’s story gets told.