When hostage Tom
Twenty-five years ago the Observer ran an exclusive interview with Tom Sutherland – a university professor who had been held hostage by Hezbollah in Lebanon for six years.
Tom Sutherland, who passed away at the age of 85 last year, spent 2353 days in captivity after being abducted by eight gunmen while he was dean of agriculture at the American University of Beirut in 1985.
During his time as a hostage he was physically abused by the Islamist militant group while also being repeatedly subjected to mental torture. He was released late in 1991 after a deal was brokered by the United Nations.
Although he spent much of his life in America, he grew up on a farm in Stirlingshire, where some of his relatives still live, and just seven weeks after his release, he was back on Scottish soil chatting to the Observer.
We reported that, accompanied by wife Jean, he headed straight to the farm cottage at Bothkennar for an emotional reunion with his family. He was also the guest of honour at Ibrox to watch his beloved Rangers, the club he played for as a youth.
At this time he, along with fellow hostage Terry Waite, was the subject of intense media coverage and, after meeting him at the family farm, the Observer said: “Tom chatted for more than an hour about football, Rabbie Burns, his wife and family, his time in captivity and the future.
“He came across as a very charismatic, personable and intelligent man, brimming with sincerity and a deeprooted sense of wry Scottish humour.
“Understandably, he preferred not to delve too deeply into the inconceivable experience of his captivity, but displayed many of the powerful character traits which must have given him the strength to survive.”
It was said that he gave very little indication of the lasting effects of sixand-a-half years in “the most horrendous conditions as a hostage in Beirut”.
The Observer reported: “He maintains his capture was a mistake on the part of the hostage-takers, the pro-Iranian Islamic Jihad group.
“Never in six-and-a-half years did his closely bonded family give up hope. Jean was a constant thorn in the side of anyone who would listen as she maintained her quiet efforts to secure the release of Tom and other American hostages.”
Sutherland, who was among dozens of Westerners taken hostage in the 1980s as Lebanon’s civil war raged, believed the kidnappers thought he was university president Calvin Plimpton. He was abducted while in Plimpton’s limousine travelling from the airport to his home – having been in the US for a family event.
While being kept captive he, along with other hostages, was often blindfolded and chained to a wall and, in the early days, beaten.
However, rather than dwelling on the trauma endured over those six years, he chose to speak to the Observer about his love of books and sport.
It was reported: “Football is a passion of Tom’s, indeed he watched all 52 games of the 1990 World Cup in Italy as his captors were football fanatics.
Tom told the newspaper: “I saw every one of the games and really enjoyed them, though I was really discouraged by Scotland, who had a lot of good games but made a lot of errors. Mo Johnston missed a lot of chances. Then I started supporting England when Scotland didn’t make it to the next section and they were very unlucky against Germany. I thought at that time jeez, I wish I’d stuck in at soccer.”
The Observer said: “Tom does not describe the captivity in the harsh terms one might expect. For instance, he recalled: ‘I had the opportunity to read many more books than I ever had read, or at least those that the guards would give us. They didn’t provide them all the time but I did read Thomas Hardy, Jane Eyre, John Updike, Gore Vidal, Henry James’.”
However, Sutherland did reflect on some darker moments. The report quotes him as saying: “The low point came after they had beaten me, which I’ve already spoken about. Right after that I found it very hard, of all the weeks that was when I suffered.
“It was both despair and anger at the same time. I thought ‘I’ve got to get away from this, I’d rather die’, so I decided to commit suicide, but I guess I wasn’t brave enough. Jean’s image and the image of my three daughters kept coming to me and I thought I can’t do this and leave Jean a widow and three fatherless children.”
He was released in 1991 after the second-longest period held captive, after American journalist Terry Anderson.
Tom spent much of the rest of his life working as a professor at Colorado State University. In 2001, his family were awarded compensation from the frozen assets of the Iranian government due to evidence Iran had instructed terrorists to kidnap Americans.
Sutherland was awarded more than $23million but gave most away to charity.
He died in Fort Collins on July 22 last year.