Capture and Murder
On February 17, 1988, Higgins disappeared while serving as the Chief, Observer Group Lebanon and Senior Military Observer, United Nations Military Observer Group, United Nations Truce Supervision Organization. Higgins was driving alone on the coastal highway between Tyre and Naqoura in southern Lebanon, returning from a meeting with a local leader of the Amal movement, when he was pulled from his vehicle by armed men. He had been abducted by the Lebanese Hezbollah. During his captivity, he was interrogated and tortured.
As a reaction to his abduction, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 618, demanding his release. A year and a half after his abduction, images of his body, hung by the neck, were televised around the world — from a videotape released by his captors. The exact date of Colonel Higgins' murder is uncertain; he was declared dead on July 6, 1990. Finally, on 23 December 1991, his remains were recovered by the late Major Jens Nielsen (Royal Danish Army) attached to the United Nations Observer Group Beirut. His remains had been "...dumped beside a mosque near a south Beirut hospital." He was interred at Quantico National Cemetery on December 30, 1991.
Read more about this topic: William R. Higgins
Famous quotes containing the words capture and/or murder:
“To capture robbers, first capture their leader.”
—Chinese proverb.
“Your kind doesn’t just kill men. You murder their spirits, you strangle their last breath of hope and freedom, so that you, the chosen few, can rule your slaves in ease and luxury. You’re a sadist just like the others, Heiser, with no resource but violence and no feeling but fear, the kind you’re feeling now. You’re drowning, Heiser, drowning in the ocean of blood around this barren little island you call the New Order.”
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