Posted on 11/20/2004 9:54:29 AM PST by anonymoussierra
By ELA KASPRZYCKA, Associated Press Writer
WARSAW, Poland - A Polish woman abducted from her apartment in Baghdad reappeared Saturday in Poland after being suddenly released. While she said she was treated well, she refused to give details of how she was freed.
Teresa Borcz Khalifa, kidnapped Oct. 28 at her Baghdad home, arrived in Warsaw on Friday night, Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka said as he introduced the former hostage at a hastily convened news conference.
"I feel well, very well, because I am free," said Borcz Khalifa, 54, smiling but looking tired. "I can't really speak of some action to recapture me — it sounds like something out of a gangster film."
Her return came days after officials said they believed another woman hostage, Briton Margaret Hassan, had been killed by her captors. More than 170 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq (news - web sites) this year, eight of them women. At least 34 hostages have been killed.
In early November, President Aleksander Kwasniewski said he asked President Bush (news - web sites) for help in freeing Borcz Khalifa. Polish officials would not say what kind of help Kwasniewski had in mind, but U.S. troops freed another Polish hostage and three Italians in a raid in June.
On Saturday, Belka also refused to say when, where or how Borcz Khalifa was freed, but said that "officials of different services took part in her release in cooperation with institutions from many countries."
Borcz Khalifa said: "I don't even know how it really took place."
"During all these actions I had a black scarf over my eyes and I was dressed in the clothes of a Muslim woman, so it's difficult to comment because I did not know what was happening outside."
"I can't give you any details about the circumstances of this event (her freedom) for two reasons," Belka said. "First, because of security concerns for our people ... and also because our partners expressed a firm wish not to reveal any details of the release operation."
Borcz Khalifa recalled that she was kidnapped in the early evening, "at the door of my house."
"The abduction was very quick — it was very well organized," she said. Still, she would give no details of her captors or say where she was held, and was evasive when asked how long ago she was released.
She said she was treated "properly" by her captors.
"I was kept in a very decent, clean room — freshly painted and washed," Borcz Khalifa said. "I was given decent food — I did not lack water or soap."
During her captivity, al-Jazeera television aired two videos of the hostage asking Poland to withdraw its troops from Iraq.
Polish leaders repeatedly ruled out a troop withdrawal. Poland commands a security force of some 6,000 troops from 15 nations, including some 2,400 Poles, in central Iraq.
Borcz Khalifa — who has lived in Iraq since the 1970s and holds dual Polish and Iraqi citizenship — said she didn't try to escape.
"It was organized in such a way that there was no such a possibility, but I did hope it would all finish," she said. "My hope was in the decent treatment I was getting, as they said their treatment of me was motivated by their religious beliefs."
"I preferred to wait patiently," she added.
Borcz Khalifa studied Slavonic languages at Krakow's prestigious Jagiellonian University and worked as a teacher before following her Iraqi husband to Baghdad, according to her mother.
She worked for some time in the 1990s at the Polish embassy, using her job there to help Iraqis get entry visas for Poland. On Saturday, she said she would stay in Poland "for the time being."
Borcz Khalifa's mother, who lives in Krakow, said she only learned of her daughter's release Saturday.
"No one called me," said Halina Borcz, 72. "A gentleman from the government came and asked me to come with him to the ministry and I did. It was a surprise."
United States First Lady Laura Bush, gets some water as spouses of leaders atendding APEC 
United States First Lady Laura Bush, left, talks with New Zealand's Peter Davis, Philippines' Miguel Arroyo, Australia's Janette Howard and South Korea 
President George W. Bush (news - web sites) and Chile's President Ricardo Lagos wave to journalists upon their arrival to the Espacio Riesco convention center in Santiago, for the first APEC
"While she said she was treated well, she refused to give details of how she was freed."
"Iraq Hostage Returns Home to Poland"
Good news.
Thank you
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