Jackson kept in dank dungeon

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32715, 18 September 1971, Page 17

Jackson kept in dank dungeon

IN.Z.P.A.-Keuter —Copt/riuhu LONDON, Sept. 17. A dank dungeon with just’ a few feet of space for exercise was the prison of the British Ambassador Sir Geoffrey Jackson, after his capture by Uruguay’s Tupamaros guerrillas.

“The physical conditions at first were unspeakable,” said the newly-knighted Sir Geoffrey Jackson at a press conference in London yesterday. “It was a classic, wet dungeon, at a very hot time of the year, and there was nothing to lie on but the floor with some rather smelly, wet polyfoam padding which in a couple of days stank because there was ho means of washing it.” Sir Geoffrey Jackson said that when he was released last Thursday after eight months in captivity he was only one day wrong in his reckoning of time even though his captors had deprived him of any means to measure the passing days. Sir Geoffrey Jackson said that after a few weeks his captors produced a camp bed.

“This left me a space of 2ft by 6ft. to exercise in with a height of about ... I can’t say more than sft because there was a beam in the

middle. These were bad .conditions, and the only thing to ; do was to devise means of keeping the body and taind fit.” After a while, Sir Geoffrey Jackson said, he was moved to better conditions. I He was convinced his captors would have killed him ' if there had been any attempt. to rescue him. He described his captors as apparently young people of about uni- . versity age, people -who had become “career revolutionaries.” He said they wore Ku Klux Klan type masks "which were very unattractive” and ’ that after a while they modi- 1 fied these masks to give them , a less disagreeable appearance. Sir Geoffrey Jackson said; 1 “Sticking to a routine was 1 vital because they had a sys- ' tern of fooling around with 1 time, they played with it like a concertina.” 1 He had to do something to 1 fill his mind and at. the same 1 time to make sure of getting 1 enough rest. ' “On the other hand if you sleep too much you turn into < a cabbage,” Sir Geoffrey i Jackson said. 1 For a long time they could ' not find him anything to read but eventually tliey did. They I tried to find out his tastes in literature. 1 Before that? “My mind is a tremendous ragbag of mat-1 erial and I was able to sur-1 vive by remembering i

things,” Sir Geoffrey Jacksor said. “Sometimes I would translate things from one language into another to keep my mind fit.” Of his future plans, the Ambassador said: “I want to get away with my wife this very aftemopn into the green and the quiet and get my walking muscles back again.” The Ambassador was asked if he ever felt any disorientation. “You mean going nuts?” he said. “I experienced desolation but I never experienced despair.”* He said that he never for one moment had the feeling of being abondoned by the British Government. On his chances of getting killed, Sir Geoffrey Jackson said: “I thought there was a considerable risk I would get knocked off.” His captors, he said, never gave much away—“No hint of time, no news, not even the hour of the day. It was a rather cruel thing to experience.” On the day of his release one of the Tupamaros walked into Sir Geoffrey Jackson’s cell and told him that he would soon be free. “How many days?” Sir Geoffrey Jackson asked. “About 15 minutes,” the guerrilla said. Asked why his captors had freed him, Sir Geoffrey Jackson said, “I think they were intelligent enough to realise

i that this business of ambas-sador-snatching is selfdefeating.” On his future plans, Sir Geoffrey Jackson said: “I want to give what is left of my life to try to put across the enormous value of our traditional mode of existence and the things we take for granted here—this paper-thin wall bf law and order which I feel very passionately about.” He said that in general the Tupamaros were a blank to him. There were girls as well as men among them. Describing his capture Sir Geoffrey Jackson said that he had taken precautions against it by varying his daily office routine. The Tupamaros afterwards told him it had been “absolute hell” to seize him and that in the end they had had to use 50 people and about seven cars in central Montevideo at the height of ; rush hour. , If this had been impossible , they had planned to snatch i him at a diplomatic reception. ; Sir Geoffrey Jackson said | that after being driven away in his car he was forced out j in a long empty street and ■ pushed into a truck “like a . side of bacon.” The only wit- , ness appeared to be a little , old lady who kept crying out < in distress. In the truck he < was beaten by a young man. “I don't think he was cruel, 1 just hysterical,” Sir Geoffrey i Jackson said. '