Bubbly welcome for American couple

Press, 18 May 1984, Page 6

Bubbly welcome for American couple

NZPA-Reuter Colombo An American couple were welcomed with champagne and flowers in Colombo after a five-day ordeal as captives of Tamil guerrillas who had threatened to kill them.

Stanley Allen, aged 36, an engineer, and his bride of two months, Mary, aged 29, were presented with the bouquet and bottle by friends and officials when they arrived by special Air Force plane from the northern town of Jaffna, where they had been freed unharmed.

“She has been a good trooper,” Mr Allen said, hugging his wife during the emotional welcome. She burst into tears and sobbed, “1 want to go home. Our parents are anxious about us.”

The couple, from Columbus, Ohio, were hustled out of the bedroom of their Jaffna home at gun-point on May 10 by guerrillas calling themselves the People’s Liberation Army. Mr Allen had a towel draped round his waist and his wife was clad in her nightgown when they were bundled into a van and driven away. They were wearing blue jeans and holding hands when they arrived after being handed over to the Catholic Bishop of Jaffna by two guerrillas. The couple, freed after the Sri Lankan Government refused to bow to the kidnappers’ demands for the release of 20 jailed guerrillas and a 50-million-rupee ($3.1 million) ransom in gold, were whisked away from the airport for a meet-

ing with the President, Mr Junius Jayewardene. They spent more than 30 minutes sipping fruit-drinks and recounting their ordeal to Mr Jayewardene at the Presidential Palace.

Afterwards they talked to reporters for five minutes but declined to answer several questions, saying that they were tired. Asked what their plans were, Mr Allen, who had been working in Jaffna for the last six months supervising a SUS 4 million water supply scheme aided by the United States Government, said, “We don’t know yet.” They gave no details of their five days as hostages of the P.L.A., one of several guerrilla groups fighting for a separate State for the island’s minority Tamils.