Alan Johnston in His Own Words

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2118343,00.html


Alan Johnston
Johnston: ‘It’s been three months since I saw the sun’. Photograph: Mohammed Abed, AFP
His feelings on being released
“It is just the most fantastic thing to be free… indescribably good to be out [after 114 days in captivity]. I feel, I think I’m OK. It was an extraordinary level of stress and psychological pressure for a long time.”

“It’s hard to believe that I’m not going to wake up in a minute in that room again.”

On the rising tension of the past few days as Hamas stepped up the pressure on his kidnappers
“I thought there was a chance that they might really kill me, that they might not let Hamas get what they came for. [My abductors] seemed very comfortable and secure in their operation until… it became clear that Hamas would be in control.”

On Hamas’s role in his release
“If it hadn’t been for that real serious Hamas pressure, that commitment to tidying up Gaza’s many, many security problems, then I might have been in that room for a lot longer,”

On enduring 114 days in captivity
“It was an appalling experience, being kidnapped, occasionally quite terrifying and I didn’t know when it was going to end. It became hard to imagine normal life. I dreamed several times of being free but always woke up in that room. It’s incredibly good to be out.”

“[My captors] were often rude and unpleasant. They did threaten my life a number of times. There was one period when they seemed to get very angry and they chained me up, but that only lasted 24 hours. They were even occasionally friendly. One of the guards would let me go through and watch his television. But it was very grim.

“It was like being buried alive and removed from the world, in the hands of people who were dangerous and unpredictable. It’s been basically three months since I saw the sun.”

On hearing radio reports about the campaign for his release
“It gave me a psychological boost. It was amazing to be lying in solitary confinement and hear people from Nigeria, Malaysia or friends from London and colleagues sending messages of support.”

On his parents
“All through they were my major concern. I was so upset that my activities had brought all these difficulties. It’s so good, the thought that I will be with them soon.”

On the future
“I think three years of Gaza as a correspondent followed by four months of kidnap in Gaza is probably more Gaza than most people need in their lives and I do not think I will be going back for some time.”

Alan Johnston in His Own Words

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