The haunting sound of safety catches ...

Press, 2 July 1985, Page 10

The haunting sound of safety catches ...

NZPA-Reuter Beirut

They spoke of moments and hours of sheer terror, of sudden highs and crashing lows, and of the camaraderie, warmth and humour that developed among their own groups and with some of their guards. The 39 American hostages will never forget their 17 days captivity by Lebanese Shi’ite gunmen. Like all foreigners who experience a little of the war in Lebanon, they underwent everything from mindless brutality to unstinting kindness and affection.

One day before they were freed, 35 of the Americans told of their experiences to a few journalists held with them for 6% hours in a Beirut schoolyard, as they waited for departure. Arthur Toga, aged 33, of St Louis, Missouri, was leaning against a pillar, wisecracking with Hassan, a giant Shi’ite militiaman sporting a big smile and a snub-nosed little Beretta sub-machine gun.

Hassan is a crack fighter of the Amal militia who was seen a few weeks earlier in a blinding rage, trying to throw a hand grenade into a car carrying a U.N. official and the Austrian Ambassador.

He only grinned amiably as Mr Toga reached up, twigged his beard, and told him: “I’m gonna take you as a hostage to New York.”

“You want my Beretta?” replied Hassan, jokingly offering the automatic weapon. The American’s tone changed a little as Hassan finished autographing ■ a copy of the Koran for the hostages and ambled off to another group. “I want you to put something down,” Mr Toga said. “The sound of safety catches clicking will haunt me till the day I die.” Mr Synnestvedt nodded: “Especially the 9mm pistols. On the plane they rolled back the hammers all the time as they walked up and down the aisle.”

Three hostages said they were locked in a cellar for three days last week and fed through iron bars. “We were really mad, just about to go bananas,” said Jack McCarty, of San Francisco. “Was it a punishment? We don’t know why.

“Afterwards the militiaman whose house it was slapped me on the back and said, ‘You very good, you my guest.’ What do you make of that?”

Mr Toga, a psychologist at a Missouri medical school, said: “We find ourselves scared to death one minute, and buddying up with these guys the next.” The previous evening, he said, was the most bizarre of his life. “You’re a political prisoner and at midnight they rush you out of bed to this luxury resort hotel with the biggest swimming pool you’ve ever seen. “They sat us down to a tablecloth dinner and very fine food, and a cake that had something like ‘good luck on your way home’ on it. Then they had us all call

our families back home until three in the morning.” All the Americans urged reporters to distinguish between the two original hijackers, believed to belong to the pro-Iranian Hezbollah or Party of God, and the Amal fighters who. later took over the plane and guarded the Americans in Beirut.

Peter Hill, aged 57, of Illinois, called the hijackers “animals." Mr Toga said: “Amal really reined in those guys.” The hostages said that their watches, rings and personal jewellery, and those of the women originally on board, were stolen. Some of their baggage was also missing or rifled.

Tom Cullins, aged 42, an architect, from Vermont, told of the killing of United States Navy diver, Robert Stethem, on the second day of the hijack.

“We were aware of it. The (TWA) purser, Uli Derickson, said, ‘put your heads down and cover your ears, and if you hear a strange

noise don’t look up or it will be our fate.’ “She said it in such a strange way, a bit foreign. But probably 30 seconds later there was a pop and there was no mistaking what it was,” Mr Cullins said.

“We heard his screams like he was being tortured and he was,” added Byron. “He was being beaten.” The pilot, John Testrake, said: “the direst moments were when we first landed in Beirut for fuel. “The two hijackers were not in control very well and were very nervous. They had guns and hand grenades and we didn’t know what would happen. “They had expected to go straight to Algiers and didn’t like being at Beirut. That made them more nervous. They were very jumpy. It was a dicey time,” he said. He added that when Amal fighters boarded next day, “It was probably a good development because it relaxed the other two and

they were not so nervous. It took the threat off the passengers.” Before leaving Beirut Mr Testrake said he understood why Shi’ite Muslims seized his plane and suggested Israel’s detention of 735 Lebanese prisoners could be described as an act of state terrorism. The Shi’ites “were driven to an act of desperation in order to bring their grievance to the attention of the world,” he said. “As reasonable men being given the entire situation as we have been here, we can see that these people have a just grievance,” Mr Testrake said of the Shi’ites. “Rather than us being in sympathy with our hijackers, it is more a matter that we have been able to understand the Shi’ite Muslims’ problems,” Mr Testrake said. The plight of the Lebanese prisoners should be remembered. “It should not be covered up or forgotten about by the world,” he said.