DARFUR KIDNAP VICTIMS ENDURED MOCK ASSASSINATIONS

KIDNAPPERS TERRORIZED TWO AID WORKERS
DURING MORE THAN 100 DAYS IN SUDAN

DUBLIN (AP) - A freed Irish aid worker held captive for three months in Darfur said Monday that her captors terrorized her and a Ugandan friend by repeatedly staging their mock executions using live gunfire. Sharon Commins and colleague Hilda Kuwuki, who both worked for Irish aid agency GOAL, were abducted July 3 and freed without harm Sunday. Commins said they both might have died from broken spirits if not for the moral support they gave each other. "You could die in there of sadness. You could just die if you didn't lift your spirits," Commins told Irish broadcasters RTE before her departure from the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, aboard Ireland's government jet.

"We definitely needed each other. We prayed together and tried to keep each other strong." Commins, 33, said. She and the 42-year-old Kuwuki were held in the open in mountainous terrain, received two meals a day but little water, were allowed to bathe about every two weeks, and had to sleep on the ground with one blanket each. They were permitted to phone their families once as part of the kidnappers' efforts to extract a reported $1 million ransom. She said their captors, who numbered from a dozen to about 18 gunmen, amused themselves by pretending to shoot the pair. "There were mock assassinations on a few occasions, so it was extremely scary. We were always anxious and stressed and upset until the minute we got out,". "We'd be told to kneel on our knees and they would shoot around us," Commins said. Sudan's government said no ransom was paid for their release and vowed to bring the kidnappers to justice.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

The taming of Kaliya is one of the Vrindaban Pastimes of Boy-Krishna. Kaliya is the type of cunning and malice. He is the embodiment of unrelenting cruelty. There is no place for Kaliya in the happy realm of Vraja. Deceit and cruelty are as poison to the artless loving nature of the denizens of Vraja. It is quite conceivable for the confiding chums of Krishna not to entertain any suspicion regarding the malicious intention of cruel and deceitful persons whose purpose is to poison them against Krishna. They may even unwittingly fall into the counsel of such evil persons. But Krishna is sure to rescue His Own from the wiles of His enemy.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura :
“The Serpent Kaliya” – An essay printed by The Harmonist - May 1932.