Former hostages say family will help Johnston’s recovery

FRIENDS and family will be the key to adjusting to life in the world outside captivity for kidnapped journalist Alan Johnston, former hostages said yesterday.

Retired banker Peter Shaw, from Maesteg, south Wales, who spent five months in captivity after being seized by a paramilitary group in the former Soviet republic of Georgia where he had been working for the European Commission in 2002, described the initial realisation of freedom as “amazing”.

Peace activist Norman Kember, held hostage in Iraq from November 2005 to March last year, said his over-riding memory was of lying awake on his first night of freedom, his mind “ticking over”.

Mr Shaw, 62, who has a Georgian partner and young son, said: “I think at the present time, in the hours or the first day following his release, he would be feeling totally out of touch with reality.

“He would not be able to believe the fact that he is now free. He would be counting the fingers and toes to make sure he is in the right place at the right time because he has gone a full four months of uncertainty, it must be a tremendous feeling.

“For the first few hours following my release I couldn’t really believe I had been freed.”

He added: “He will be looking forward to getting to see his friends and family as soon as he possibly can, as soon as he can get out of Jerusalem and back to the UK I would have thought.

“It is an unbelievable experience to sit down in the departure lounge knowing that you are going to go home, it is a tremendous feeling.

“The media for the first few days and weeks will be fairly intrusive but he obviously has a loving and close family, the sooner he can get back to them the better it will be.

“It will all fit into place, he might not be able to sleep a bit but he will quickly come down to earth.”

Mr Kember told Sky News: “All I can remember is that the first night I wasn’t able to sleep because my mind was ticking away.

“But because I came back to a family and church background I fitted in very readily, I didn’t have any post-traumatic problems.”

He added: “The Americans were very keen that I had trauma counselling but I didn’t want it, I think it has to be an individual decision.”

He said the experience of writing a book had been “cathartic” but added: “On the whole, it is over a year ago now and I want to get on with the rest of my life to some extent.”

Mr Shaw added: “I don’t know Alan but having heard him on the radio he seemed to be quite composed, he is obviously a professional.

“As a journalist he might want to get back doing what he was doing as soon as he possibly can — not necessarily in the same part of the world.

“It is a good thing to get back into the saddle.”