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Kember said he found the kidnapping "unreal"

Peace campaigner Norman Kember has given an emotional account of his ordeal as a hostage in Iraq.

Mr Kember, 74, of Pinner in north west London, was held in Baghdad for four months before his rescue on 23 March.

In his first in-depth interview since then, he told BBC Radio 4's Taking a Stand he had contemplated suicide.

And he wept as he recalled that British special forces asked for "Mr Kember" when they rescued him and his two Canadian colleagues in Baghdad.

American peace worker Tom Fox, 54, was killed weeks before the rescue. When asked about his fellow hostage, Mr Kember said he was a "remarkable man".

And, admitting that he considered taking his own life, the Christian peacekeeper said: "When you are really depressed you think of suicide but there are not the means to do so."

'Not frightened'

Mr Kember told the BBC's Feargal Keane how the kidnap of the four men - himself, Mr Fox and Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32 - began.

"We got in our car, the four of us with a driver and a translator, and we were just driving out towards the main road when a car stopped in front of us."


They were British, they wanted to know if 'Mr Kember' was there, and I said, 'Yes'
Norman Kember on his SAS rescue

In quotes: Kember's ordeal

He said "out popped four men with guns, pushed out the driver and the translator and took over the car and told Jim to lie on the floor and pointed guns at us, and off we were driven.

"It was sort of an odd feeling, 'Is this actually happening to me?' It seemed unreal. I do not think I was frightened. It was just unreal, 'This is what a kidnap is all about'.

"They drove us not very far but tried to throw us off the scent - where we were - by driving round the block three or four times. I remember seeing the same boys playing football twice."

He said they were then "driven through a big iron gate and into a fairly secure house. We were taken in, sat down, and we were handcuffed fairly soon after that.

"We were sat as a row, either four of us or three of us, handcuffed together, and that is where we sat for about 12 hours a day."

'Grateful'

Mr Kember said they were kept in a room with a window that was closed, except in the morning when one of their captors would "open the window a bit to let some fresh air in.

"Then we would see a bit of sunlight, but of course the windows had bars on the outside.

His voice breaking with emotion, he spoke of the moment his rescuers arrived.

"We had this sort of futon thing on the floor, and we were lying there, and suddenly we heard noise outside and then somebody calling out and then the breaking of glass and then up the stairs came these SAS gents," he said.

Norman Kember, Pat Kember
Norman Kember was held for 117 days

"It's unbelievable because it was so sudden and first of all, because they were British, they wanted to know if 'Mr Kember' was there, and I said, 'Yes' and then they said, because I was the person at that stage chained to the door, 'This is a bolt-cutter job,' so they went down and cut the padlock and released me."

Mr Kember said he "continues to thank" his rescuers.

"They were brave. I disagree with their profession, but it is ironic isn't it - you go as a peace activist and you are rescued by the SAS, which is perhaps the most violent of all the British forces.

"Anyway I am grateful to them. I met one of them by chance on the way out of Baghdad and he was quite happy to chat to me and I was happy to chat to him."

Mr Kember, whose voice also cracked with emotion when asked about his reunion with his wife, said he had "asked for forgiveness" and she was "kind".

He realised that an "enormous stress" had been placed on her when he discovered, while he was held, that she had made television appeals for his release.