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Taliban "Very Honorable" Says Freed British Reporter
LONDON, Oct 14 (News Agencies) - Freed British journalist Yvonne Ridley said Sunday that her Taliban captors who had held her for more than a week in Afghanistan were "very honorable people" and had treated her with respect.
The Sunday Express reporter, who was freed by the ruling Taliban on Monday, a day after the start of U.S.-led military strikes, also said the conditions she had been held in were "acceptable".
"They were not hostile. They played a few mind games, but they were very respectful," she told BBC television.
"I learned that the Taliban are very honorable people - they kept their word."
She said she had been "very frightened" when a Taliban cleric asked her if she would like to convert to Islam, as she thought it might have been a trick question.
Ridley, 43, was detained near the northeast city of Jalalabad on September 28th, dressed in a traditional
burqa but without any papers.
She said she was caught after her camera was spotted when her donkey tried to bolt, a short way from the border with Pakistan after spending two days in Afghanistan.
"A Taliban soldier shouted at me and pulled me off the donkey. A huge crowd gathered very quickly. I was then bundled in a car."
Ridley, whose daughter Daisy celebrated her ninth birthday last week while her mother was in captivity, said she would love to go back to Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, in an article for the Sunday Express, she told how she thought she would be stoned to death after being captured.
Her burqa was torn off and she was dragged onto high ground, she wrote.
"I am now cold with fear and my mouth is chokingly dry. My shoes are no longer on my feet.
"This is it. It's the end. I am going to be stoned to death. I pray the first stone will knock me unconscious.
"I wonder if I will start crying or pleading for my life. I wonder how much pain I can take and pray it will be over quickly.
"I've never felt so numb. What will happen to my body? Oh God, please help me."
But she was not harmed and was instead driven to Jalalabad for questioning.
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