Somali captors release British tourist

— A British tourist seized by Somali raiders from a secluded, upmarket resort on the Kenyan coast more than six months ago in an attack that claimed her husband’s life was set free by her captors Wednesday, ending a drama that had helped fuel Kenya’s rationale for invading southern Somalia.

Judith Tebbutt, the 56-yearold captive, praised the efforts of her son, Oliver, in getting her released in an interview with Britain’s ITV News, which was broadcast hours after British officials confirmed that she had been set free, apparently unharmed.

“I’m looking forward to seeing my son, who successfully secured my release,” she said. “I don’t know how he did it, but he did.”

Tebbutt was shown wearing a purple head scarf in a blue-walled room. The precise location of the interview in Somalia was not disclosed.

British officials declined to go into detail about the circumstances of her release.

Officials said she was on her way to Kenya from Somalia.

Somalis with knowledge of Tebbutt’s release said a ransom had been paid, but British officials declined to comment on the claim. As a matter of public policy, the British government does not condone the payment of ransom or other inducements to hostage-takers. But British news reports said her family had met ransom demands to secure her release.

Tebbutt’s abduction was one of several kidnappings by Somali gunmen in Kenya last year that Kenyan officials initially cited as justification for sending troops into Somalia on Oct. 16, arguing that Kenya had to defend its tourism industry.

But, soon afterward, the Kenyan government disclosed that the foray was planned much earlier, part of a covert strategy to penetrate Somalia and keep the violence in one of Africa’s most anarchic countries from spilling into one of Africa’s most stable.

“I’m really happy,” Tebbutt told ITV. “It’s just nice to be around other people. It’s been quite lonely. Seven months is a long time and under the circumstances, with my husband passing away, made it harder.

“There were some very hard psychological moments, but I got through it. So I’m really relieved.”

“I was moved around a bit from house to house. That started when there was some Navy SEALs successfully captured two aid workers. I think it was on the news,” she said, apparently referring to eventsin January when a team of about two dozen U.S. Navy SEALs rescued two other hostages, a U.S. aid worker and her Danish colleague, held by Somali pirates since October.

Gunmen seized Tebbutt, and killed her husband, David Tebbutt, 58, at the $430 per night Kiwayu Safari Lodge in September in one of a series of attacks at coastal resorts near the town of Lamu, one of Kenya’s best-known tourist destinations. The couple were the only guests at the resort and had arrived from the Masai Mara game reserve.

Judith Tebbutt was abductedin the middle of the night after a speedboat packed with Somali gunmen sped up to the resort, a string of 18 luxury cottages just south of the Somali border. They burst into one bungalow occupied by the British couple and fled with Tebbutt.

Her husband was believed to have been killed when he resisted the attackers.

Western officials said at the time that she had been abducted by a pirate gang that was holding her deep within Somalia.

Worries about pirate attacks on land deepened in October when, three weeks after Tebbutt was taken, Somali gunmen staged another attack, snatching a handicapped French tourist from a beachside bungalow on Manda Island near Lamu and escaping to Somalia. Thewoman was later reported to have died in captivity.

Asked whether a ransom had been paid for Tebbutt’s release, a spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron said: “Our position is that we do not pay ransoms and we do not facilitate concessions to hostagetakers.”

Somali pirates have yet to release captives including an American taken in January and two Spanish aid workers abducted in Kenya, news reports said. Other hostages include a French military adviser and scores of mariners from several lands taken prisoner after their vessels were hijacked at sea.

Information for this article was contributed from Amsterdam by Jeffrey Gettleman of The New York Times.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 03/22/2012

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