Friday, February 27, 2009

Italian nuns say Somali extremists kidnapped them

Italian nuns held captive in the Somali capital for more than two months "prayed all the time" but said they were well treated by kidnappers who identified themselves as being hardline Somali Islamic militants.

In a rare cross-border kidnapping, Maria Teresa Olivero, 60, and Caterina Giraudo, 67, were seized from the remote northeastern Kenya town of El Wak on Nov. 10. They then were driven to the Somali capital of Mogadishu, where they were kept under guard until Feb. 19.

On Thursday, they gave their first news conference since they were freed.

Olivero and Giraudo said they ate "good food." But since they had no contact with outside world, they spent a lot of time in prayer and read a Bible that the Islamic militiamen took from the pocket of a dead Ethiopian soldier.

"It was very hard. We didn't have news, we didn't know anything," Olivero said, adding the only thing to listen to was Somali radio stations.

"We prayed all the time ... just to get strength from God, to not lose hope," said Giraudo. She said her little knowledge of Somali helped them establish a rapport with their captors.

"They told us who they were, al-Shabab. They showed us a photo of (Osama) bin Laden," Olivero said.

The U.S. State Department considers al-Shabab a terrorist organization with links to al-Qaida, something the group has denied.

Kenya and Italy shared intelligence to help secure the release of the nuns, diplomats said, but declined to give details of the negotiations or how the nuns were freed.

Kenyan Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula described the negotiations as "very hard and protracted." He said no ransom was paid.

"We are very happy and excited the two nuns have been released," Wetangula said. He said Kenya was stepping up border security to improve the safety of people there. But the flat arid terrain makes it easy for people to cross the 1,200-kilometer (746-mile) border with Somalia even though it has been closed for two years, he said.

Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991, when warlords overthrew a socialist dictator. They then turned on each other, plunging the Horn of Africa nation into anarchy and chaos.

Militiamen came in the middle of the night of Nov. 9-10 and shot up the door of the house and took them away, Olivero said, adding the nuns narrowly escaped death "because they fired everywhere."

They walked for 15 minutes, got into all-terrain vehicles and drove for five days to Mogadishu, she said.

Witnesses said the nuns were driven to the border in a convoy of three stolen vehicles after six gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons, hurled a grenade and fired a rocket at Kenyan police.

When they arrived in Mogadishu the militiamen gave them each a long dress to change into and a body-length burqa to cover themselves. The kidnappers changed their hideouts a few times but the women were always put in a clean room with two mattresses, Olivero said.

Then on Feb. 19, an hour before their release, they were told they would be freed.

"It was a joyful moment," Olivero said.

Some time later Kenya's foreign affairs minister received a message on his mobile phone from the Italian ambassador: "We have good news."

The nuns have been staying at the Italian ambassador's house in Nairobi since their release.

Source: AP

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