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Freed hostage tells of ordeal
27/03/2006 07:49 - (SA)
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| Canadian peace activist and former hostage James Loney smiles at his arrival in Canada. (Aaron Harris, AP) |
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Toronto - Freed Canadian hostage James Loney returned home after four months in captivity in Iraq and described it as a "terrifying" and "excruciatingly boring" experience.
Loney arrived at Toronto's Pearson International Airport on Sunday and was reunited with his family before making a statement to the media.
"During my captivity I sometimes entertained myself by imagining this day. Sometimes I despaired of ever seeing it. Always I ached over," said Loney, appearing noticeably gaunt. "For 118 days I disappeared into a black hole and somehow by God's grace, I was spit out again."
On Thursday, a joint United States-British military operation freed Loney, fellow Canadian Harmeet Singh Sooden, 33, and Briton Norman Kember, 74, from a house west of Baghdad where they were held. Upon being freed without any violence, the three learned that fellow hostage American Tom Fox, 54, had been killed by the hostage takers weeks earlier.
Loney thanked those who worked to rescue them.
Grateful
"I am grateful in a way that can never be adequately expressed in words," Loney said. "To the British soldiers who risked their lives to rescue us, to the government of Canada who sent a team to Baghdad to help secure our release, to all those who thought about us and prayed for us, for all those who spoke for us when we had no voice, I am forever and truly grateful. It's great to be alive."
Loney was flown out of Baghdad on a Canadian military plane on Saturday before taking a commercial flight from Dubai to Frankfurt.
The 41-year-old pacifist said he wants to reacquaint himself with his partner and his family. He said he looks forward to a normal life and washing "a sink full of dirty dishes."
"My head is swirling and there are times that I hardly believe it's true," Loney said.
In Ontario, where Loney's parents live, residents eagerly awaited his arrival, although it was not immediately clear when that would happen.
The four peace activists were kidnapped on November 26, and Fox's body was found dumped in western Baghdad on March 9. He had been shot in the head and chest.
Major General Rick Lynch, a US military spokesperson in Baghdad, said the 08:00 rescue on Thursday was launched three hours after a detainee told American forces where the hostages were. The man was captured by US forces on Wednesday night.
Peggy Gish, a Christian Peacekeeping Team member in Baghdad, said the hostages did not appear to have been tortured or abused. Most of the time, the captives were not tied up, and the captors - a little-known Iraqi radical group - provided Kember with medication for high blood pressure and an aneurysm.
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