- Title: BELGIUM : EUROPEANS FREED BY REBEL FORCES SAID THEY HAD BEEN WELL TREATED
- Date: 21st April 1995
- Summary: CONAKRY, GUINEA AND BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (APRIL 21-22, 1995) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) CONAKRY, GUINEA (APRIL 21) 1. SV EXTERIOR CBG (GUINEA BAUXITE COMPANY) COMPOUND WHERE HOSTAGES WERE HELD TEMPORARILY 0.07 2. SV BARBED WIRE ON WALL 0.10 3. SV FRONT GATE / PEOPLE OUTSIDE / GATE OPENS AND SOME CARS DRIVE OUT 0.22 4. SV VARIOUS OF AIRPORT SCENES/ FORMER HOSTAGES GET THEIR BAGS (2 SHOTS) 0.38 ZAVENTEM AIRPORT, BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (APRIL 22, 1995) 5. SV PLANE ON TARMAC/ FREED HOSTAGES GET OFF PLANE AND IN TO VEHICLES 0.43 6. SV FREED HOSTAGES ARRIVING AT AIRPORT HOTEL WALK INTO PRESS ROOM. ONE SAYS "YOU COULD WARM THE WEATHER UP FOR US" (ENGLISH) 0.57 7. SV NEWS CONFERENCE 1.01 8. SV LEFT TO RIGHT: ANDREW YOUNG AND TOMAS PLUESS 1.04 9. SV LEFT TO RIGHT: UNNAMED PERSON IN GLASSES (NOT A HOSTAGE) and PETER WHITE 1.07 10. SV LEFT TO RIGHT: RUDI BRUNS AND JAMES WESTWOOD 1.11 11. SV LEFT TO RIGHT: RUSS MILNE AND WALTER VON ROTZI 1.14 12. SV VARIOUS VIEWS OF FAMILIES AT PRESS CONFERENCE 1.17 13. SV FORMER HOSTAGE ANDREW YOUNG SPEAKING (ENGLISH) 1.32 14. SV ROSS MILNE SPEAKING (ENGLISH) 1.39 15. SV ANDREW YOUNG KISSING HIS WIFE DEE YOUNG 1.45 16. SCU DEE YOUNG SAYING SHE IS PLEASED TO HAVE HIM HOME (ENGLISH) 1.52 17. SV YOUNGS LEAVE 2.10 SEQUENCE 13 transcript: YOUNG :"MENTALLY IT WASN'T A PROBLEM BUT PHYSICALLY IT WAS. I GOT MALARIA THREE TIMES BUT THEY TREATED ME AND PULLED ME THROUGH" SEQUENCE 14 transcript: MILNE :"SAYING ONE OF THE WORST THINGS WAS THERE WAS NOTHING TO READ" Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 6th May 1995 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: CONAKRY, GUINEA/BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
- City:
- Country: EUROPE AFRICA Belgium Guinea
- Reuters ID: LVA6YGRZIMFQQHRH8QQKTSY72FBQ
- Story Text: A group of Europeans, freed by rebel forces in Sierra Leone after more than 90 days in captivity, said in Brussels on Saturday (April 22) they had been well-treated and had always been confident of their eventual release.
The 10, mining engineers and aid workers, flew to Belgium from Conakry, Guinea, after being released on Thursday by the RUF.
"We were bored, painfully so sometimes," said Russ Milne, a Briton who, along with 5 other Britons, two Swiss and a German, was seized by Revolutionary United Front (RUF) guerrillas in January.
The group amused themselves with hand-made chess and backgammon sets, a pack of cards and keep-fit routines, he said, but the biggest problem was a lack of anything to read.
Milne described the moment when he was captured in his mining company offices saying they were not hurt and were told to "feel free".
Another captured Briton, Andrew Young, suffered through three bouts of malaria during his captivity and said it was rough but the rebel soldiers had looked after him.
The Britons said their captors maintained throughout their ordeal that they were protecting the westerners from Sierra Leone's army and not holding them hostage.
They had been held by the RUF for between three and six months.
At a news conference following their arrival at Brussels' Zaventem airport, the former hostages said they had never doubted that they would be released and that boredom had been among their biggest enemies.
The RUF launched an offensive against the military government of Sierra Leone in November. They say they want a national conference to discuss the country's future, and a withdrawal of Guinean, Nigerian and other foreign troops from Sierra Leone.
The government says the RUF controls no provincial towns and has no chance of taking Freetown, the capital.
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