ROME, 11 June 2005 — An Italian aid worker who was held hostage in Afghanistan for more than three weeks arrived back home yesterday aboard an Italian jet.
The plane carrying Clementina Cantoni, 32, landed at Rome’s Ciampino military airport shortly after 5:30 p.m., coming from Kabul, the Afghan capital. Among those welcoming the young woman at the airport was Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who went aboard the plane to greet her.
Minutes later Cantoni, looking pale and emotional and dressed in a black shirt and jeans, was escorted by Berlusconi as she left the plane and walked onto Italian soil.
“Thank you, everything is OK,” Cantoni was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency.
“I have been treated well,” Cantoni said, according to ANSA. “But I think about other people who are still held hostage.”
Cantoni was released Thursday in Kabul, where she had been abducted by armed men on May 16. The woman was working for CARE International on a project helping Afghan widows and their families.
After her release, Cantoni was taken to the Italian Embassy, where she immediately asked for a bowl of spaghetti, said the Italian ambassador in Kabul, Ettore Francesco Sequi.
Back home, Italy reacted with joy and relief at the news of Cantoni’s release. The woman’s parents broke out in tears and hugged each other at their home in Milan, a family friend said. The country’s top officials expressed their joy.
“Clementina (is) free, the end of a nightmare,” was the banner headline of Turin-daily La Stampa.
Italian papers also said that Cantoni’s freedom was secured thanks to the release of the mother of the head of the kidnappers. ANSA said the woman had been under detention for alleged involvement in a previous abduction case.
The Afghan government said Thursday that no ransom was paid or concessions made to obtain Cantoni’s release.
Italy’s top daily, Corriere della Sera, said the alleged exchange occurred in an apartment in Kabul with the help of a local businessman acting as a mediator.
