Somali hostage freed on
appeals from Djibouti, Eritrea, Somalia
A Somali truck driver kidnapped in Iraq has been talking about his
ordeal after arriving safely back in Kuwait.
Saturday,
August 07, 2004 - Ahmed
Musa, who works for a Kuwaiti haulage firm, was captured by gunmen on 24 July
about 200km north of Baghdad. 
He
told the BBC that at one point he was taken into a makeshift court and
sentenced to death but afterwards, he was well-treated by his captors.
The
militant group Tawhid wa al-Jihad threatened to kill him if his employers did
not stop their operations in Iraq.
Mr
Musa was released after appeals from Somalia, Eritrea and Djibouti and told not
to return to Iraq and to pass this warning onto other drivers.
He
broadcast this message on the television station Al Jazeera to secure his
release.
Blind-folded
Mr
Musa, 52, had been driving his truck with supplies to the north of Iraq and was
the last in a convoy of vehicles when he was captured, he told the BBC Somali
Service.
He said a small car blocked his way, and he was then approached by
gunmen.
They asked him to get out from his vehicle and blind-folded him.
He was
then taken to a house in the boot of the car, he said.
On the
second day of his kidnapping, he said he was moved to a makeshift courtroom in
the same building where he was sentenced to death.
"There
were so many people at the court... the judge was the oldest of the group and
had the longest beard. At that point I thought I would die," Mr Musa said.
Collaborator
"I
was kept in a room but not blind-folded at that point. The arrest was the worst
part but after that I have been treated well. I was given lots of food which
was the same as what they were eating."
Although
a Muslim, Mr Musa was considered a collaborator and he was not allowed to pray
or join his captors for meals.
Mr
Musa believed the kidnappers were Iraqis and he felt that they were angry about
the US occupation of Iraq as they were not supportive of the Iraqi transitional
government.
His
captors told him that his name had been distributed all over Iraq and if he was
found in any part of the country he would be killed immediately. BBC News
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Unlimited, high
