“The whole country can be incredibly proud of what he did and what he stood for in his humanitarian mission.”
Guardian News and Media/London
The brother of David Haines, the British aid worker beheaded by Islamic State militants, led tributes to the 44-year-old whose murder was condemned by the prime minister as “an act of pure evil”.
In a statement Mike Haines said his brother had a passion for humanitarian work. “David was most alive and enthusiastic in his humanitarian roles.
“His joy and anticipation for the work he went to do in Syria is for myself and (my) family the most important element of this whole sad affair. He was and is loved by all his family and will be missed terribly.”
Describing him as “a good brother, there when I needed him and absent when I didn’t,” he said he could be “in the right mood, the life and soul of the party and on other times the most stubborn irritating man. He would probably say the same about me.”
He said his brother had joined the UK’s Royal Air Force (RAF) as an aircraft engineer after working for country’s postal service, the Royal Mail, and had married his “childhood sweetheart Louise and in the due process of time had a wee lass Bethany”.
“He was - and no doubt wherever he is - exceptionally proud of Bethany,” he said.
Haines was born in east Yorkshire, north England, and grew up in Perth in central Scotland, where he attended Perth academy. After 12 years in the RAF he worked as a security adviser and manager for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating in some of the most troubled corners of the world, including Libya, the former Yugoslavia and South Sudan.
After separating from his first wife he remarried; his second daughter Athea, aged four, lives with his Croatian second wife, Dragana, in Sisak - a town south of Zagreb.
Haines’s family had issued a plea to his captors the day before the beheading video was released, urging the hostage takers to contact them. The family said Isis had ignored earlier attempts to open communications.
David Cameron praised the “extraordinary courage” shown by the Haines family during the long and ultimately unsuccessful efforts to secure his release and said his “selflessness, his decency, his burning desire to help others has cost him his life”.
Describing Haines as “a British hero”, Cameron added: “The whole country, like his grieving family, can be incredibly proud of what he did and what he stood for in his humanitarian mission.”
He was “murdered in the most callous and brutal way imaginable by an organisation which is the embodiment of evil.”
Haines had been in Syria for just three days before he was abducted in March 2013. He was working for the French Agency for Technical Co-operation and Development (Acted) and had been surveying possible sites for refugee camps.
Acted called his murder a “crime against humanity” and, in a statement following his killing at the hands of Isis, said it was “deeply appalled and horrified”. It said: “The horrible assassination of David, an aid worker, goes against all humanitarian principles and is a crime against humanity. This barbaric crime must not remain unpunished.
“In this tragic moment, our thoughts are with his family, friends and loved ones. All of the Acted team empathise and share their pain.
“David was a new member of the Acted team supporting the emergency humanitarian response for the displaced Syrian people in Atmeh camp near to the Turkish border. David was appreciated by the Acted team and all those around him, notably for his generosity, commitment, and his professionalism.
“Since his abduction, David has constantly been at the forefront of our minds and efforts. David will remain in the hearts and minds of everyone in Acted.”
The Perth and North Perthshire MP, Pete Wishart, said: “This dreadful news will be devastating for Haines’ family and I know that everyone in Perthshire will share my shock, anger and sadness at what has been done by these terrorists.
“David Haines went to the Middle East to help those caught up in conflict and attempt to make conditions better for the people he so bravely served. The whole world will be sickened by the actions of these utterly contemptible people and their perverted cause.
“My thoughts are with my constituents who have suffered this appalling loss and Haines’s family and friends elsewhere. I appeal to the media to give them all the space and privacy they need to come to terms with what has happened.
“I have been keeping in frequent contact with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (which promotes the UK’s interests overseas) and his family in Perth since I first learned that someone connected to my constituency had been taken hostage and will be continuing to do as efforts are made to bring his killers to justice.”
