Family, Friends Commemorate Hostage

VALLEY FORGE, Pa.--Friends, colleagues and relatives expressed hope for the release of Terry Anderson and frustration at the continued imprisonment of the American journalist snatched off a Beirut street two years ago yesterday.

"I don't think there is any more hope today than yesterday or last year when he will be freed," Peggy Say, Anderson's sister, said at a news conference sponsored by the American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A.

"But hope is what sustains the family," she said. "There may be a lot of disarray in the government now. But President Reagan has reaffirmed his faith in the hostages. I think he is strongly committed to these men."

Anderson, 39, the chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, was taken captive on March 16, 1985, and has been held longer than any other of the eight Americans still in captivity in Lebanon.

At least 26 foreigners, including Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite, are also believed held by Shiite Moslem extremists.

The news conference and luncheon for Mrs. Say and other relatives of American hostages was held at the American Baptist center here following a national day of prayer for the hostages by American Baptist congregations.

"Terry is where he is because he believed in the sacredness of what he was doing--trying to tell the story of a suffering people, tell it to readers and listeners and viewers all over the world," Louis D. Boccardi, president and general manager of The Associated Press, said in a statement yesterday.

"We owe him two pledges," she added "First, that we will serve, as ably as we can, the high ideals his sacrifice evokes; and second, that we will not rest until he is once again with us, turning that bright mind and caring heart once more toward spreading the truth, as best an honest reporter can know it."

The Rev. Lawrence Jenco, a former hostage, read a letter he addressed to Anderson in which he said, "Until you and the others are set free, I am still held hostage."

Then he faced the reporters and television cameras, raised his head and said, "Please, dear God, set them free."

Eric Jacobsen, representing his father, former hostage David Jacobsen, read a message from Jacobsen that echoed Jenco's sentiments.

"As long as these men are in chains, I am in chains," Jacobsen's statement said.

Also present for the news conference was Elaine Collett, wife of British hostage Alec Collett. Relatives of hostage Joseph Cicippio of nearby Norristown were to attend the luncheon.

"Our presence here today is an admission of failure, and our shared frustration is that we do not know who failed," Walter Mears, AP vice president and executive editor, said in remarks for delivery at the luncheon.

"The only certainty is that it was not Terry Anderson. He did his job, wrote the truth, and asked only to keep doing so."