Alan Johnston, the BBCs Gaza correspondent was kidnapped by a group known as The Army of Islam on 12 March 2007. On July the 4th he was finally set free after 114-days in captivity. Now he tells the full story of his ordeal in this special edition of his favourite UK BBC Radio 4 programme From Our Own Correspondent which will also broadcast on BBC World Service.
Alan talks of the room in which he was held with its narrow sagging bed and two plastic chairs. How he was stripped of his watch and could only tell the time by the passage of the sun and the five calls to prayer from nearby mosques. How he had to throw away his disposable contact lenses on the first day and how, in this blurred, empty room he began to come to terms with the disaster which had engulfed him. He says he felt very very far from home and aghast at the situation he was in. He worried about the impact his abduction would have on his elderly parents and his sister at home in Scotland. His captors allowed him to see a television appeal his parents made for his release and Alan said it was a vast relief for him to see his fathers powerful and dignified address on TV. For me, he says in this programme, it was their finest hour. Trying to keep control of his mind in this situation was, he says, one of the greatest challenges hes ever had to face. It was the psychological battle of my life. He passed time thinking back to his childhood, about his career and about past girlfriends. His ordeal gave him plenty of time to regret the decision hed made to stay on in Gaza despite the increasing dangers he faced as BBC correspondent there. Often during his days in captivity, he thought he would be killed and if this happened, he thought it likely he would be the subject of an execution video in the style of those filmed in Iraq. Alan says he didnt want to be seen on such a video as a weeping, pleading, broken man; he was determined to preserve his dignity in his final moments. He describes how he gradually came to know his guards; particularly one young man called Khamees who was wanted by the authorities, a battle-hardened urban guerilla who rarely ventured outdoors and, as the kidnap drew to a close, smashed Alan in the face. The violent politics of Gaza eventually shifted against Alans kidnappers: as the powerful Hamas and Fatah factions began a fight to the death he lay in his room listening to machine gun and rocket fire in the streets outside feeling lost in a place which had descended into all-out war. But the changing political scenario finally led to Alans release, although he didnt know this when he was hooded and violently taken outside and put into the back seat of a car. Alan believed that at any second a gun battle might erupt and the car would fill with bullets. Yet soon he was free and, within days, back in Scotland where all that had happened to him in Gaza began to slide into the past. There are still nightmares but Alan believes hes going to be fine. The kidnap, he reflects, was a sort of dark education. I lived through things which before I would have struggled to imagine Ive gained too a deeper sense of the value of freedom even now, more than three months after I was freed, it can still seem faintly magical to do the simplest things like walk down a street in the sunshine or sit in a café with a newspaper. Ends For more information please contact: Tony Grant, BBC Producer, BBC World Service, (UK) +44 (0) 207 0207 557 2191. [EMAIL PROTECTED] >From Our Own Correspondent: Alan Johnston's story will be broadcast on BBC World Service at the following times - All are shown in GMT. Australia: Thursday 00:06, 05:06, 11:06 and 16:06 East Asia: Thursday 03:06, 08:06, 13:06, 16:06, 19:06 South Asia: Thursday 04:06, 09:06, 13:06, 16:06, 21:06 East Africa: Thursday 06:06, 11:06, 14:06, 21:06 Friday 01:06 Saturday 06:06, 21:06 Sunday 02:06, 09:06 West Africa: Thursday 09:06, 14:06, 21:06 Friday 00:06 Saturday 13:06 Sunday 09:06 Middle East Thursday 06:06, 13:06, 19:06 Friday 00:06 Saturday 13:06 Sunday 02:06, 09:06 Europe: Thursday 08:06, 11:06, 19:06, 23:06 Friday (Radio 4) 01:06 Saturday (Radio 4) 00:06 Saturday (BBC World Service) 11:06 Americas: Thursday 13:06, 19:06 Friday 00:06, 05:06 Saturday 13:06, 23:06 Sunday 09:06 (BBC Press Release via DXLD) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Swprograms mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/swprograms To unsubscribe: Send an E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], or visit the URL shown above.
