KENYA: FREED AUSTRALIAN PILOT JUSTIN FRASER SPEAKS ABOUT HIS IMPRISONMENT IN SOMALIA

Record ID: 363845

  • Title: KENYA: FREED AUSTRALIAN PILOT JUSTIN FRASER SPEAKS ABOUT HIS IMPRISONMENT IN SOMALIA
  • Date: 5th October 1996
  • Summary: NAIROBI, KENYA (OCTOBER 5, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV EXT AUSTRALIAN HIGH COMMISSION/ CU SIGN (2 SHOTS) 0.10 2. SV JUSTIN FRASER AND HIS MOTHER PAULINE DICKSON ARRIVING FOR PRESS CONFERENCE 0.21 3. SV PHOTOGRAPHER 0.24 4. SV FRASER SAYING I WAS LOCKED INTO A ROOM APPROXIMATELY THE SIZE OF A SHIPPING CRATE. IT WAS A WINDOWLESS ROOM. IT HAD NOTHING IN THERE. I WAS SLEEPING ON THE FLOOR AND GOT A BLANKET AFTER TWO WEEKS. I HAD NOTHING TO HOLD DRINKING WATER OR A BUCKET TO USE AS A TOILET. (ENGLISH)/ MOTHER GETS UPSET AND LEAVES THE ROOM 1.16 5. SV REPORTER MAKING NOTES 1.19 6. SV FRASER SAYING AFTER A FEW DAYS THEY GAVE ME A PLASTIC SLEEPING MAT WHICH WAS VERY GENEROUS. THAT WAS IT. GENERALLY SPEAKING I WAS LOCKED IN THERE FOR 21 OR 22 HOURS A DAY. (ENGLISH) 1.34 7. SV REPORTER'S NOTEPAD 1.38 8. SV FRASER SAYING WHEN YOU ARE LIVING IN THERE IT IS VERY HARD BECAUSE YOU ARE DYING OF THIRST. THEY WON'T GIVE YOU A WATER BOTTLE AND YOU CAN'T DRINK TOO MUCH WHEN YOU ARE OUT BECAUSE YOU CAN'T GO TO THE TOILET. I DIDN'T THINK I HAD DONE ANYTHING TO DESERVE BEING TREATED LIKE THIS. I HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE FROM THESE PEOPLE. I DIDN'T THINK IT WAS RIGHT. (ENGLISH) 2.18 9. SV CAMERA PERSON 2.21 10. SV FRASER AND HIS MOTHER GETTING INTO CAR AND LEAVING THE COMPOUND (2 SHOTS) 2.42 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 20th October 1996 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NAIROBI, KENYA
  • City:
  • Country: Kenya
  • Reuters ID: LVA13FT218G24BBWGINDL5I3KLCD
  • Story Text: INTRO: An Australian pilot freed after four months in a Somali jail has been speaking for the first time about his ordeal and says he thought he was going to die.

    Twenty four year old Justin Fraser was thrown into jail after being forced to make an emergency landing in Somalia when his plane developed mechanical problems.

    He was sentenced to 25 years behind bars for flying without clearance and entering the country without an Aideed government visa...despite the fact visas are not required for pilots in transit.

    Fraser, from Australia, was only freed after Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi intervened.

    On Saturday (October 5) he was reunited with his mother in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

    At a news conference at the Australian High Commission he spoke of his four months of hell and how he was imprisoned in a tiny windowless cell for up to 22 hours a day.

    Fraser said he had to sleep on a bare, hard floor without even a blanket and was given nothing to use as a toilet.

    His detailed account was too much for his mother Pauline who broke down in tears and left the room.

    Fraser, who lost 16 kg (35 pounds) during 131 days of captivity, said at times he thought he would die of thirst as his captors refused to give him a water bottle in his cell.

    He blames a deputy attorney-general of faction leaderHussein Aideed's self-declared government for his bad treatment, claiming the official "had a problem with white people" since the days when South Somalia was occupied by the Italians, and saw Fraser's jailing as a chance to get even.

    Fraser says that in jail he was attacked by guards when he protested and when he banged and kicked on the cell door so hard he injured himself.

    Fraser had been flying in a load of qat, a mild narcotic plant chewed by Somalis and grown in Kenya, when he was forced to make the emergency landing and his nightmare began.


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