MOGADISHU, Somalia — Two foreign journalists _ a Briton and a Spaniard _ were released in good health Sunday after nearly six weeks in captivity in Somalia, officials said.The journalists, reporter Colin Freeman, 39, of The Sunday Telegraph and freelance photographer Jose Cendon, 34, were working on a piracy story when they were kidnapped Nov. 26. more.. VIDEO: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/123115199785.htm
Sunday Telegraph's Colin Freeman describes fear during Somalia kidnap
The Sunday Telegraph chief foreign correspondent, Colin Freeman, has written today about the moment he and a Spanish colleague were betrayed and kidnapped by their Kalashnikov-wielding bodyguards in Somalia.
Freeman and photographer José Cendon were freed on Sunday after being abducted in November in the northern Puntland region while reporting on piracy in the area.
The British journalist today detailed the terrifying moments his 40-day ordeal as a hostage began, confirming that he and Cendon were kidnapped by bodyguards they paid $20 a day.
"Heading from our hotel in the Somali port of Bossaso to the airport for our flight home, the pickup truck carrying our armed escort of eight Kalashnikov-toting gunmen suddenly pulled ahead of us, one of them cocking his weapon and flashing a vicious snarl in the direction of the driver of our own car," Freeman wrote in today's Daily Telegraph.
"For a fleeting second I thought they were just having a bad-tempered argument over which road to take: in wild, lawless Somalia, the people you hire to protect you are often only just on the side of the angels, as volatile and scary as anybody else. Then, as his companions leapt out of the pickup and surrounded us, forcing open the doors of our car and pointing their guns in our faces, came the awful realisation that this time, we'd backed the wrong side altogether." more..http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jan/06/sunday-telegraph-colin-freeman-describes-somalia-kidnap
No comments:
Post a Comment