A videotape has emerged showing a Canadian aid worker who was kidnapped at gunpoint by Palestinian militants from his office in the Gaza Strip.
Wearing a suit and tie and surrounded by masked armed militants of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the man gave his name as Adam Budzanowski. He said he was in the Gaza Strip to work on job-creation projects and educational work.
"I was detained in the morning out of the office by armed men who seemed to be very agitated, and very aggressive and very well-armed," he said. "I was advised right away this action is not taken against me personally or against any other detainees.
"But this is [an] urgent way of patriotic Palestinians to protest against action of Americans and the British who allowed Israelis to capture prison I believe in Jericho."
"They have used this opportunity to send a message mostly to Americans, and the British and Canadians and others who care to listen," the man said on the video. "Whatever happens to Ahmed Saadat, the same will happen to me and other detainees."
Budzanowski's group is an Atlanta-based humanitarian organization called JumpStart international which runs projects to create jobs and economic activity.
Whatever happens to Ahmed Saadat, the same will happen to me and other detainees.
'I was sure they were going to harm me': Canadian hostage
Last Updated Wed, 15 Mar 2006 13:10:53 EST
CBC News
A Canadian aid worker kidnapped in the Gaza Strip told CBC News he was treated roughly until his captors believed his claims that he was not American.
In an interview shortly after Palestinian officials negotiated his release, Adam Budzanowski said he was very tired and exhausted.
Adam Budzanowski, after his release on Wednesday.
"I didn't sleep all night. Every five minutes a guard would come into a small room and turn the light on," he said Wednesday.
FROM MARCH 15, 2006: Canadian hostage in Gaza released
Budzanowski was kidnapped Tuesday morning from the Gaza office of JumpStart, the U.S.-based aid organization he works for. At least 11 foreigners were kidnapped in Gaza and the West Bank in response to Tuesday's Israeli raid on a Palestinian-run Jericho prison.
The Toronto native said armed men burst into the JumpStart office and aimed their guns at him because they thought he was American. They didn't believe he was Canadian, even when he showed them his passport.
"It's not very pleasant to be recognized as an American. They give special treatment to people of American origin," he said.
Budzanowski said four men surrounded him in the backseat of a vehicle as he was driven to a building.
"It was a rough ride at high speeds," he said.
With a mask over his head, Budzanowski said he was taken to a building with cement floors, shoved against a wall, a door and pushed down a staircase.
"I was sure they were going to physically harm me," he said.
Budzanowski said he was moved at least four times overnight and prevented from sleeping.
But he said his captors treated him "nicely" when they realized he was Canadian.
"Later at night when they realized, they changed from extreme rough to lightly rough. Today they changed and treated me nicely," he said.
Budzanowski said he's "desperate to take a hot shower and go to bed."
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