A7

Dean Bennett
THE CANADIAN PRESS

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EDMONTON - Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout, freed after 15 months of captivity in war-torn Somalia, says she was kept isolated, beaten and tortured, so she dreamed of walking through Vancouver's Stanley Park to stay sane and not lose hope.

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Canadian Press

Amanda Lindhout

"My day was sitting on a floor in a corner, 24 hours a day for the last few months," Lindhout said in an interview with CTV from Mogadishu, the capital city of Somalia.

Lindhout, who is from Sylvan Lake, Alta., and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan were kidnapped Aug. 23, 2008. Somali officials said they were released Wednesday.

"There were times I was beaten, I was tortured," said the freelance journalist, her voice breaking, as she described her days in a dark, windowless room. "It was an extremely, extremely difficult situation.

"The money wasn't coming quickly enough for these men, and they seemed to think if they beat me enough, then when I was able to speak with my mother (by phone every couple of months), I would be able to say the right thing to convince her to pay the ransom, which was a million dollars."

She said she tried to convince them her family didn't have that kind of money, but she said they believed all Canadians were that wealthy.

Money was ultimately paid by the families, she said, but she didn't know how much.

Lindhout was with her family in a Mogadishu hotel Wednesday. The organization Associated Somali Journalists said everyone was heading to Nairobi, Kenya, on Thursday.

Lindhout and Brennan were kidnapped while touring refugee camps outside Mogadishu. Their Somali interpreter was also kidnapped but released a half-year later.

She said she was moved around the country to 11 different houses, but spent most of the time in Mogadishu.

"There were some pretty dark moments," she said. "It was the idea of coming home, a reunion with my family that kept me going," she said.

"In that darkness I would try to escape in my mind to a sunny place, usually Vancouver. I would imagine running around Stanley Park, and that would keep me going."

Her captors allowed her to make periodic one-way phone calls to family and media to plead for her release.

The Arab TV network Al Jazeera once showed silent video of her, surrounded by gunmen, in a red Islamic robe.

After a deal was brokered for their freedom, Lindhout and Brennan were brought by militiamen from southern Mogadishu to a release point and into the hands of a negotiator, according to reports.

Canada's Foreign Affairs Department did not immediately return calls.

Former Alberta MP Bob Mills, who represented Lindhout's riding, and organizations such as Reporters Without Borders worked over the last year to secure her release.

"I met with the family a couple of weeks back and everybody was getting frustrated, but still hopeful that something like this would ultimately happen," said Mills in an interview from Red Deer, Alta.

"It's great for the family. It's a wonderful Christmas present."

Prior to her trip to Somalia, Lindhout had reported for TV news organizations in hotspots in Africa and Iraq.

Somalia, then and now, is essentially lawless. The government controls parts of the African Horn country, but the rest is in the hands of feuding warlords and rebel groups. Violence and kidnapping of foreigners is commonplace, and Somali pirates have attacked foreign ships and taken hostages in coastal waters.