Kidnapped Canadian Journalist fears Dying in Captivity

"[My family] must deal directly with these people as my life depends on it. My life is worth more than any money spent." "I've been held hostage by gunmen in Somalia for nearly 10 months," said Amanda Lindhout, a Canadian freelance print and TV journalist from Sylvan Lake, Alta., to a journalist.

"I'm in a desperate situation, I'm being kept in a dark, windowless room in chains, without any clean drinking water and little or no food. I've been very sick for months without any medicine." The woman said she is in need of "immediate aid," and begs the Canadian government to help her family pay her ransom. "Without it, I will die here," she said. "I also tell them that they must deal directly with these people; my life depends on it."

Ms. Lindhout, along with Australian photographer Nigel Brennan, was abducted while on a freelance assignment on Aug. 23 covering the famine and violence in Somalia for a French television station.
Three days after arriving in the capital city of Mogadishu, she and a group, including photographer Nigel Brennan of Australia, left a hotel to visit a refugee camp about 30 kilometres to the south. They were stopped on the road and abducted.

On May 24, they spoke to an Agence France-Presse correspondent in Mogadishu by phone for five minutes from an undisclosed location.
That call was obtained after weeks of efforts to establish contact with the hostages, who appeared to be reading or reciting a statement, possibly under duress.

"I have been sick for months. Unless my government, the people of Canada, all my family and friends, can get one million dollars, I will die here, OK, that is certain," Ms. Lindhout told AFP, sounding distressed. She urged the Canadian government to give more help to her family's attempts to secure her release after 274 days in detention with Mr. Brennan. The call was made to AFP through an intermediary. A Somali journalist and two drivers who were captured with Ms. Lindhout and Mr. Brennan were released Jan. 16.

The Somali kidnappers holding Amanda Lindhout, a freelance Canadian journalist, are under pressure from militias to make sure they exchange her for money, according to sources in the region.
Ambroise Pierre, head of the Africa desk of Reporters Without Borders, said Thursday his organization is very concerned about the safety of Lindhout and Brennan.

"What I got this morning from information and sources on the ground is worrying because apparently there are some militias in Mogadishu who are putting pressure on the kidnappers so that the hostages would be sold," Pierre told CTV's Canada AM from Paris.
"What I mean is that apparently everybody in Mogadishu is surprised that the detention is so long. Nearly 10 months after the kidnapping the kidnappers would like to get rid of Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan but would absolutely like to get paid."
Pierre said the kidnappers are trying to show "everybody that if they don't (get paid) they could get really angry."

Last week the Toronto Star reported a man phoned the paper from Mogadishu offering a similar interview three days after the AFP exchange, but the Star turned down the offer for fear of compromising Ms. Lindhout's chances of freedom. But it has been now nearly 10 months that the two have been held hostage and the officials have not achieved anything - it is high time that joint efforts from the families and also from the Somali side are made to end this horror, stated an analyst.

Source:Ecoterra, June 11, 2009

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