14 November 2010 Last updated at 19:27 GMT
Click to play
A retired British couple have been released by Somali pirates after being held captive for more than a year.
Paul, 60, and Rachel Chandler, 56, from Kent, were seized from their yacht off the Seychelles in October 2009.
Mrs Chandler said: "I'm enjoying being free". The couple said they were fine, but will undergo medical checks.
On release they were taken to Adado, then Mogadishu, and have now arrived in Kenya. The BBC held off reporting the release due to an injunction.
It observed the terms of the order obtained by the Chandlers' family which was intended to stop news organisations covering their release until they were safely out of Somalia.
Mr Chandler told the BBC: "We're fine, we're rather skinny and bony but we're fine."
Rachel Chandler and her husband said they were fine after their ordealThe couple were told they were to be released two days ago, he said.
"We were told on Friday in a way which gave us some confidence to believe it. Otherwise we'd been told we'd be released in 10 days almost every 10 days for the past nine months. So we'd taken all these suggestions with a pinch of salt."
Asked if he had felt their lives had been in danger during captivity, he said: "That's something we'll talk about later, but we were not really directly endangered by the gang, after the initial seizure."
The husband and wife both stressed that the conditions of their captivity were not important, with Mr Chandler saying: "You can see from our state that we suffered no serious physical harm."
However, he added: "We were beaten once."
Mrs Chandler later explained that the beating had happened when they resisted their captors' attempt to separate them - an event she said was "very traumatic".
Prime Minister David Cameron described the release as "tremendous news".
"We will ensure that they are reunited with their family as quickly as possible.
"I unreservedly condemn the actions of those that held the Chandlers for so long. Kidnapping is never justified."
Family 'overjoyed'
The couple are now in the British High Commission in Nairobi, Kenya's capital.
A statement issued by the Chandler family, issued once the couple had arrived in Nairobi, said that although the couple looked to be in "relatively good health... we cannot yet be certain how the difficulties that they have had to endure in recent months will have affected them physically and emotionally".
There was no official word on whether a ransom was paid, but the BBC's Frank Gardner said it was "the best part of $1 million".
A payment of about $430,000 (£267,000) was made in June, but did not result in the release of the Chandlers, he added.
Our correspondent said it was thought unlikely any of those responsible will be brought to justice in Somalia, a country without an effective government since 1991.
Media speculation was thought to have influenced the pirates, and so the family opted for a super-injunction banning coverage of the kidnap.
Foreign Secretary William Hague reiterated the long-standing British policy of not paying ransoms.
"I think it is right that successive British governments have said we don't make concessions to hostage-takers. But it is also right to do everything else we have done in this case and that the previous government did.
"We have used our contacts in the region to try to gain information and to influence the hostage-takers. But no British government is going to start paying ransoms for hostages."
Paul Chandler said he hoped to return to seaThe Chandler family statement said: "The family believes it would be irresponsible to discuss any aspect of the release process as this could encourage others to capture private individuals and demand large ransom payments, something that we are sure none of us wants."
Earlier in the Somali capital Mogadishu, Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed met the couple and said the government was pleased they had been freed.
He said the government had "exerted every humanly possible effort to bring you back to your loved ones".
Trauma and recovery
Baroness Kinnock, who was involved in the case during her time as Foreign Office minister for Africa, said: "The trauma will have been terrible for them, and they'll need a lot of help and support."
She said there had been "a lot of activity" in the Foreign Office, but it was difficult to make contact with the pirates.
Any ransom payment by the UK government would "cause an escalation of this kind of activity", she said.
In June, the couple asked Mr Cameron whether he was willing to negotiate with the kidnappers.
But the Foreign Office said at the time that the UK government's policy of "not making or facilitating substantive concessions to hostage-takers, including the payment of ransoms, is long-standing and clear".
Earlier this year their captors threatened to kill the couple if their demands for $7m (£4.4m) were not met.
=================================================
Chandlers describe 'traumatic' beating from pirates
14 November 2010 Last updated at 21:02 GMT
=============================================================
The British couple who spent almost 400 days held hostage in Somalia have spoken of their "traumatic" time.
Paul and Rachel Chandler, kidnapped off their yacht near the Seychelles in October 2009, said they had been beaten when they refused to be separated.
"We were really distraught, we were very frightened at that point," Mrs Chandler, 56, of Tunbridge Wells, Kent, said after arriving safely in Kenya.
They said they had only the vaguest idea of how the rescue had come about.
Mr Chandler, 60, said they had been driven across Somalia, then were left locked in a car to sleep overnight.
"Just after dawn, about 7 o'clock, we were asked to leave and join our rescuer. It was hard to have any feelings really, almost disbelief, it was too good to be true," he said, having travelled from Adado, then to Mogadishu, and finally flying to Kenya.
Details of their onward journey back to the UK have not been released yet.
They were held in harsh conditions, with intense heat, in rural Somalia for 13 months. Mr Chandler said they were well, albeit "rather skinny and bony". Medical check-ups were available in Nairobi for them.
Yacht loss
The long-term effects of their ordeal are unknown, with their family back in the UK asking "that everyone gives them the opportunity to adjust and return to their families and friends in the days to come".
Both husband and wife - who are experienced sailors - said the worst time had been leaving their yacht, in which they had been sailing from the Seychelles towards Tanzania as part of a longer voyage.
"The worst time was when we had to abandon our home and boat... in the ocean," Mr Chandler said.
Mrs Chandler agreed, saying: "Abandoning [our yacht] Lynn Rival when we were taken on board the container ship and brought eventually on shore was the worst time.
"Another time that was very traumatic was when they decided to separate us. We were really distraught, we were very frightened at that point. We refused to be separated and we were beaten as a result. That was very traumatic."
Mrs Chandler said they had been told on Friday of their imminent freedom but remained doubtful it would happen.
She said it was the gang leader who told them the news, but "he was always telling us lies, from time to time, that we would be released. But we were hopeful as for the last few months we had heard so little".
Mr Chandler said they could not comment on any details about how the rescue was negotiated as they had only the "vaguest idea" of what had happened, having had "no communication since the middle of June with the outside world".
Details were not released by the Chandler family in the UK, who issued a statement saying: "The family believes it would be irresponsible to discuss any aspect of the release process as this could encourage others to capture private individuals and demand large ransom payments, something that we are sure none of us wants."
Earlier this year their captors threatened to kill the couple if their demands for $7m (£4.4m) were not met.
A payment of about $430,000 (£267,000) was made to the pirates in June, but did not result in the release of the Chandlers.
Media speculation was thought to have influenced the pirates, and so the family opted for a super-injunction banning media coverage of the kidnap.
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said the ransom paid for their eventual release had been "the best part of $1 million".
Our correspondent said it was thought unlikely any of those responsible would be brought to justice in Somalia, a country without an effective government since 1991.
Government condemnation
The British government welcomed the news of the Chandlers' release, with Prime Minister David Cameron "unreservedly" condemning the captors.
"Kidnapping is never justified," he said.
Foreign Secretary William Hague reiterated the long-standing British policy of not paying ransoms.
"I think it is right that successive British governments have said we don't make concessions to hostage-takers. But it is also right to do everything else we have done in this case and that the previous government did.
"We have used our contacts in the region to try to gain information and to influence the hostage-takers. But no British government is going to start paying ransoms for hostages.
(bbc)============================================================
No comments:
Post a Comment