A Polish woman held hostage in Iraq for nearly a month was terrified of being rescued by U.S. troops because she believed any military-style raid would have ended in bloodshed.
Teresa Borcz Khalifa, a 54-year-old Pole released unharmed last month after Polish authorities waged diplomatic efforts to free her, recalled how her Islamic kidnappers reached for grenades whenever there was a knock at the door.
''Whenever I heard a helicopter go past I hoped it wasn't Americans who found me and hoped to rescue me,'' Borcz Khalifa said in an interview with The Associated Press at her home in Krakow, Poland. ''I would have died, my kidnappers would have died, everyone in the helicopters would have died, and so would all of the neighbors.''
Borcz Khalifa, who is divorced from an Iraqi and had lived in Baghdad for 27 years, said she doesn't know exactly why she was freed, but learned after her return to Poland that her country's ambassador and other authorities in Iraq made extensive diplomatic efforts on her behalf. Twenty days into her captivity, her kidnappers simply drove to a Baghdad street where they pushed her out of their car and sped off.
She said that shortly before her release, the kidnappers acted nervous and made her cover herself completely in black clothing, but gave no explanation.
''I don't know anything else because in fact they (Polish officials) didn't tell me how they freed me,'' said Borcz Khalifa. ''And even if I knew, I wouldn't say anything because it could risk the life of other hostages.''
She said the sound of traffic and military planes flying overhead made her certain she was being held in Baghdad although she couldn't say what neighborhood.
Sitting next to a light-strung Christmas tree, Borcz Khalifa recalled her captors as deeply religious Muslims who prayed five times a day, fasted during the holy month of Ramadan and mostly treated her with politeness and respect. After they seized her from her home on Oct. 28, they only threatened her with guns during the recording of two videotapes that were broadcast by al-Jazeera television.
The recordings showed the group, which called itself the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Fundamentalist Brigades, demanding that Poland withdraw its 2,400 soldiers from Iraq and use its clout as a U.S. ally to secure the release of all Iraqi female prisoners.
Ahead of the first recording, Borcz Khalifa told them their demands were ridiculous and that ''if you ask such things, people will laugh at you.''
''They said, 'Yes, we know, and we believe that nobody will do what we want, but we want to be in the media,''' she said. ''They just want to be on TV, you know, to make sure all people know what's going on there.''
Even though she was terrified, she struggled to remain calm throughout, even refusing their demands that she cry and beg for mercy during the second recording.
At times she even laughed, hoping to show her captors that she wasn't afraid.
''They motioned with their hands, saying that they would cut off my head, and they laughed describing how the blood would spurt out and how the nerves would be cut and then hang over,'' she said, recalling one conversation. ''And then I began laughing with them.''
|