IS Hostages

From the BBC:

"How four men survived as hostages of IS"

In his classic novel 1984, George Orwell writes about Room 101 - a torture chamber where you are subjected to your worst nightmare, the worst thing in the world, to break your resistance.  To survive any such place of profound pain is the greatest of gifts, a triumph of the human spirit. In our time, surviving brutal captivity at the hands of so-called Islamic State in Syria must certainly count as such a triumph.  When four former hostages came together this month for their first reunion since they were freed, at different times, two years ago, it was a celebration of friendship forged in the most threatening of circumstances, a remembrance of an agonising ordeal. In the BBC radio programme Held Hostage in Syria they recall months without sunlight, weeks chained together, days upon days of beatings. There was too little food, and so much longing for clean clothes, a proper toilet, and most of all, freedom. But it was also an affirmation of extraordinary resilience. They had all won what they call a "game of survival" which lasted about one long terrible year of torment for all of them.  They played this game in their own individual ways to preserve themselves, and some semblance of human dignity. Federico Motka, an Italian aid worker, lowered his gaze and raised his guard to avoid his captors' efforts to demean him. French war correspondent Didier Francois pushed back and stared them straight in the eye. Danish photographer Daniel Rye Ottosen, an elite gymnast, did the splits to convince them he was not a spy. French blogger Pierre Torres took beatings, but satisfaction, from ignoring their orders.  And they played this game together, helping each other endure their ordeal, as IS guards of different nationalities deployed diverse tactics of physical and psychological torture to try to break them. Only one, Daniel Rye, was subjected to such brutality that he tried to take his own life - but the guards stopped him, and his fellow hostages brought him back to health.  There were real games too: chess, with pieces fashioned from cheese cartons with nail clippers; draughts (checkers), with the seeds of olives and dates; a self-styled lecture series on everything from carp fishing, to sailing, and how to dive into a small pool. This is how they escaped in their mind. At one point in 2013-2014 19 men carrying a Western or a Russian passport were held hostage together in one small room. An adjacent room was a cell for five women. One by one, they have been freed for ransom or executed. Of this group of male hostages only one, British journalist John Cantlie, is left and one woman whose name has not been made public. Several journalists and aid workers, and hundreds of Syrians, have not lived to tell of their ordeal. We know of their fate from grotesque videos on social media which have brought a sickening cinematic slickness to medieval beheadings.

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The 19 hostages

• Federico Motka, 33, Italian aid worker - captured March 2013, released May 2014
• Daniel Rye Ottosen, 26, Danish photographer - captured May 2013, released June 2014
• Pierre Torres, 31, French blogger - captured June 2013, released April 2014
• Didier Francois, 55, French journalist - captured June 2013, released April 2014
• Six of the men held with them were beheaded by IS - James Foley, Sergey Gorbunov, David Haines, Alan Henning, Peter Kassig and Steven Sotloff
• Eight were released - Edouard Elias, Javier Espinosa, Nicolas Henin, Marc Marginedas, Ricardo Vilanova, Toni Neukirch and two un-named aid workers
• One remains in captivity - the British journalist, John Cantlie
• Of five women held captive separately at the same time, aid worker Kayla Mueller was killed, three were released and one remains in captivity
• No-one was released without the payment of a ransom

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^ I watched the documentary "The James Foley Story" and heard some of this from some of the freed hostages. No one can imagine what it is like to go through such an ordeal unless you go through it yourself. Then to be freed while others held with you are murdered. Governments around the world handle hostage situations differently - especially those held outside their home country. I don't agree with how the US handles (or I should say doesn't handle) an American being taken hostage. It is a policy that needs to be changed. You can sometimes compromise with a hostage taker without giving into their full demands. Of course sometimes you can't and there should be a special hostage rescue team created for those situations. ^

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36080991