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IN THE FACE OF DEATH
Back home for Christmas, Dinesh Rajaratnam recounts his ordeal at the hands of kidnappers in Iraq

By Mahangu Weerasinghe and Asif Fuard
A terrorist attack, a kidnapping and a month-long hostage crisis. For most of us, these crises occur only on the silver screen. But Dinesh Rajaratnam lived through them all with death staring him in the face throughout. Now, safely back at home with his family in Sri Lanka, he has a traumatic story to tell. Though beaten and bruised badly, he had not received any medical attention after his ordeal when The Sunday Times met him on Wednesday.

It was Dinesh's passion for cars that led him to the Middle East. An old boy of St. Anthony's College, Wattala, he got his heavy vehicle licence at 21 and secured a job at the Colombo Port container yard. However, the money was inadequate to support his family, his wife and three sons, and he set his sights on Kuwait and that is where he went in June 2003.

"The Al - Quareem agency took sixty eight thousand rupees to send me abroad," says Dinesh recalling the events before his departure to Kuwait. "The agency however did not pay my travelling charges to the transport company I was going to work for, and my employer cut ten dinars (around Rs. 3,500) per month from my monthly salary of 60 dinars. I am still paying back the interest on the loan I took to go abroad."

In Kuwait, he worked for Al-Jassim transport as a container driver in the Shuwaikh seaport. "I worked in the port, but when Indian drivers were banned by their government from entering Iraq, I was forced to fill a vacant position," he says.

That is how on October 18, this year, Dinesh set out from Kuwait for his first drive into Iraq carrying fibre optic cables for a US military base in Baghdad. "From the border, our two company trucks were accompanied by Iraqi security personnel," Dinesh said, explaining that every vehicle that enters Iraqi territory is given two guard vehicles. "We arrived at Al Kut, a town south of Baghdad by the 18th evening and stopped at an eatery for dinner."

After dinner, the drive resumed but 30 kilometres to the north, Dinesh had to spend the night at a big checkpoint as the road was unsafe beyond that after dusk. Around 7 the next morning, he was on his way once again.

"The area was dangerous, and the security car in front of us was speeding ahead to get out as soon as possible, and was about a kilometre in front," recalls Dinesh. "I was driving a low bed truck and could not keep up with the car. Neither could the Bangladeshi who was driving the truck in front of me." The security car taking up the rear was way behind.

That was the point at which the attackers struck. "I was driving at 120 kmph, the fastest my truck could go, when suddenly a white Mercedes-Benz swerved in front of me. From the window, a rifle was aimed at me and I slowed down. I stopped but they started shooting at the vehicle. The door was locked but they shot at the door and I opened it," he says still in shock when describing the attack.

Dinesh was pulled down from the vehicle, stripped of his bullet-proof vest given at the checkpoint, handcuffed and pushed to the ground. "I watched as they shot at my truck, and blew it up with a mortar," says Dinesh.

Another terrorist car had intercepted his Bangladeshi colleague. Both he and Dinesh were then blindfolded and Dinesh was thrust into the boot of the Mercedes. "The boot was littered with rounds from the weapons used by the gang. After travelling some distance the Bangladeshi was also put in with me," explains Dinesh.

Once the vehicle stopped, they were bundled out, still manacled and blindfolded, and put into a room. Then only were the blindfolds and handcuffs removed. "There was just one metal door and the room was dark. We never knew whether it was day or night," recalls Dinesh. "We were not allowed to bathe and had no spare clothes to change into. We had to grope in the dark even to make our way to the toilet."

Dinesh suffered most during the interrogation. "They kept asking me in Arabic what nationality I was and I didn't know how to answer. They thought I was an African-American soldier of the US Army and they hit me again and again, calling me an American."

"I was assaulted for about a week with wires and poles - they did not understand that I was not American," said Dinesh. "I did not have any external injuries, but there was a lot of pain inside. My head and back still hurt at times, and I'm short of breath."

For about a week there were only the two of them, the Bangladeshi and Dinesh, in the room. "After that I was taken to a room where there was an Arab girl - she knew good English and asked me about my background," says Dinesh adding that the beatings stopped soon after when the terrorists realized that he was not American. "Two days later I was videoed, and this is the footage that had come on Al-Jazeera television."

To add to his woes was the fact that he was a Christian. "They didn't much like that I was a Christian. They said that I must become a Muslim and I was in no position to say otherwise. I feared for my life and said that I would learn their religion," says Dinesh.

Given the name of Ahmed and taught to pray five times a day, his captors called him only by that name."As time went on, more people were brought into the cell. Five people, two Egyptians and three Iraqis, were held with us at different times. I believe that all of them were killed," he says sadly. He and the Bangladeshi were shown videos of some of the executions.

"While I was in there, I was broken mentally - I had lost all hope of coming home alive," Dinesh says. "At times they used to say they were releasing us soon, and at times that they would execute us."

On the morning of December 8, the two hostages were informed that they would be released and the waiting agony began. "We were told to bathe and change our clothes. They said that they would release us after Salath, their morning prayers. But the minutes turned to hours," he says.

It was late morning when Dinesh and the Bangladeshi were led out of the room and into a car and ordered to keep their heads bowed low so that they would not be able to identify the location. "After a few minutes of driving we were allowed to sit up and found that we were on a road - there were even US forces on either side."

Their captors then contacted another car by phone and discussed a place for the handover. It was a secluded area and Dinesh and the Bangladeshi were given over to two lawyers. But the ordeal was not over. "The lawyers took us to a nearby hotel for lunch, and it was there that the Iraqi intelligence took us in," said Dinesh. The next two days they were questioned by Iraqi intelligence.

It was Friday when the Sri Lankan Ambassador to Iraq, resident in Lebanon, came there. Dinesh remembers the date and time. "It was 10 a.m. on Friday. Mr. Amanal Farouque took us to the Indian Embassy, where we were given temporary Sri Lankan passports, and flown out to Jordan the next morning," explains Dinesh.

While the Bangladeshi Embassy took care of his colleague in adversity, Dinesh flew home via Doha, Qatar to a jubilant family who had been driven to the airport by the Foreign Ministry.

Dinesh who is back home for Christmas is living proof that miracles do happen. "I am back here with my family and that is all that matters to me," he said. However, with no job, no compensation and a huge loan to pay back, his troubles are far from over.

Tussle by Al-Quareem
Dinesh Rajaratnam's problem with the Al-Quareem Agency is not a one-off incident. Many people seeking foreign employment have allegedly been duped by the company to pay exorbitant amounts for their jobs abroad, The Sunday Times learns.

The agency reportedly takes the client's money and does not pay it to the employer at the other end. The employer thus cuts a sum monthly from the worker's pay, to cover the cost of the air ticket.

When contacted by The Sunday Times, agency manager Mohamed Faiz said, "We are holding the one way ticket of Rs. 17,000 in case the employee breaks the contract and comes back early."

Nine affected workers had written to the Foreign Employment Bureau six months back, requesting an investigation. Although two inquiries were held, no representative of the Al-Quareem Agency was present, it is learnt.

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