Mala
Angelus
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
Posts: 798
Location: Inside My Own Little World
|
|
| Quote: | BBC reporter Alan Johnston has said it is "just unimaginably good to be free" after 114 days in captivity in Gaza.
He said his ordeal felt like being "buried alive", and was "sometimes quite terrifying".
Mr Johnston, 45, was handed over to the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza City. Britain said the group had played a key role in his release.
The reporter said he had not been tortured by the Army of Islam group which seized him on 12 March.
Several hours later he appeared live on TV, thanking BBC colleagues and others who had supported him throughout his time in captivity.
He vowed to return to "obscurity" and said he would try to "stay out of trouble" in future.
He said he found the experience frightening "because I didn't know how it was going end," but said he never considered escape as a real possibility.
Mr Johnston was speaking from the British Consulate in Jerusalem, where he is recovering before flying back to the UK.
His parents visited BBC World Service offices on Wednesday.
His father Graham said he and his wife were "overjoyed" at their son's release.
"It's been 114 days of a living nightmare," he said.
Gordon Brown, in his first prime minister's questions session in the UK parliament, said: "The whole country will welcome the news that Alan Johnston, a fearless journalist whose voice was silenced for too long, is now free."
Mr Brown acknowledged the "crucial" role played by Hamas in securing Mr Johnston's release.
But a spokesman for Mr Brown said Britain's policy towards Hamas had not changed, and the movement was still expected to recognise Israel and show a commitment to non-violence.
New haircut
Mr Johnston said he was aware of efforts to free him because he had constant access to the BBC World Service on the radio.
News of global demonstrations in his support was a source of comfort to him, he said.
Rallies worldwide had called for Mr Johnston's release. An online petition was signed by some 200,000 people.
He thanked colleagues, international media and ordinary people for organising "the most extraordinary international campaign" for his release.
"The thing you don't want is to be left behind, buried alive, and have the world go on around you," he said.
He appeared with a cleanly-shaven head, saying one of his first acts after his release was "going to the barbers and getting rid of that just-kidnapped look".
Hamas role
Having worked in Gaza for the past three years, Mr Johnston said he was well aware of Palestinian traditions of hospitality and regarded his abductors as an "aberration".
He said he was looking forward to being re-united with his family, expressing sorrow that his "actions" had brought turmoil to their lives.
The BBC reporter was handed over to officials of Hamas, which controls Gaza, in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
He later appeared beside Ismail Haniya, the Hamas leader in Gaza.
Hamas gunmen overran Gaza last month, expelling their rivals from the Fatah faction and prompting its leader, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, to sack Mr Haniya as prime minister.
Mr Haniya said the result "confirms [Hamas] is serious in imposing security and stability and maintaining law and order in this very dear part of our homeland".
He also said he hoped a deal could now be reached for the release of the Israeli corporal, Gilad Shalit, who has been held in Gaza since being seized in a border raid by three militant groups a year ago.
'Dream of freedom'
Mr Johnston said during his captivity "it became quite hard to imagine normal life again".
"The last 16 weeks have been the very worst of my life," he added. "I was in the hands of people who were dangerous and unpredictable.
"I literally dreamt many times of being free and always woke up back in that room."
Mr Johnston said he was not tortured during captivity but he did fall ill from the food he was served.
He was able to see the sun in the first month but was then kept in a shuttered room until a week before his release, he said.
Mr Johnston was kept in chains for 24 hours but was not harmed physically until the last half hour of his captivity, when his captors roughed him up "a bit".
|
|
|
