Alberta native Amanda Lindhout has spoken publicly for the first time since she was released by her Somali kidnappers last fall, saying she now values her freedom in a way she didn't before.
The 28-year-old journalist addressed a crowd at a dinner organized by Alberta's Somali-Canadian community in Calgary on Sunday night.
Lindhout said she hopes residents of the war-torn East African country will eventually share the freedoms she has enjoyed since returning to Canada -- freedom from hunger, poverty and violence.
She and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan were abducted in August 2008 by armed gunmen on a road south of Mogadishu. They were held captive in Somalia for the next 15 months.
During her speech she described her captors as "criminals masquerading as freedom fighters."
"Despite my own suffering in Somalia, and without condoning what was done to me, I feel that those inflicting violence are deeply wounded and traumatized," she added.
Lindhout thanked several unnamed Somali citizens, who she said had worked to secure her release. During her captivity, she said one Somali woman risked her life in an attempt to save her.
Lindhout sat at a table surrounded by friends and family after addressing the crowd, but declined to speak to media that attended the event.
Organizers said the dinner was intended as a way to thank Lindhout, who had been working as a freelance journalist when she was kidnapped, for trying to bring attention to humanitarian crises in Somalia.
Lindhout flew back to Calgary, where her family lives, in early December. She had not spoken publicly about her captivity since returning, save for pre-Christmas written statement that thanked those who helped free her.
With files from The Canadian Press
