Excitement as hostages are freed

AP

Deborah Calitz, left, and Bruno Pelizzari at a news conference at the presidential palace a few hours after they were released by their captors in Mogadishu, Somalia,on Thursday. Picture: Associated Press

Freed hostage Bruno Pelizzari’s niece has told of two weeks of silent agony, knowing that he and his partner, Debbie calitz, were about to be released.

Terry Hecht and her mother, Vera, had to keep the news secret for fear of jeopardising the release until Thursday when it finally happened.

Hecht said Thursday that she was the only other person, apart from her mother, Pelizzari’s sister, who knew almost two weeks ago that her uncle and Calitz were finally on their way back home.

“The most difficult thing for me was not being able to tell my family. It was absolutely nerve-racking.”

Even when she was already on her way to meet the couple who had been held for 20 months, Hecht said she was not allowed to speak to anyone about the release. She said she had to wait for her mom to be in a “safe place” before she could tell her family.

The visibly exhausted but cheerful 24-year-old who was inundated with calls said that on several occasions, giving people information worked against her uncle.

Bruno Pelizzaris sister, Dora Hunt, left, and his niece, Terry Hecht, hold a copy of Thursdays late edition of the Daily News with the story of the release of their beloved brother and uncle, who will soon be on his way home after 20 months of being held captive by Somali pirates. Pelizzari and Debbie Calitz were kidnapped in October 2010. Picture: Terry Haywood

“I’ll never forget his first words to me for the rest of my life,” Terry said from her Westville home. “It gives me goose-bumps every time I think about it.”

“Today I am free. Yesterday I wasn’t but today, I am,” Pelizzari told his niece after he and Calitz were released by their Somali captors and reunited with his sister, Vera Hecht in Kenya.

Vera said her brother was delighted to hear about his new grandson, one-year-old Calvin whom he has never seen.

“He knew about Calvin before he was taken hostage, as his son’s wife was pregnant at the time, but he is very keen and excited to finally meet him,” Hecht said.

She said Calitz, was even more surprised to learn that she had two grandchildren. Hecht is with the couple in Rome where they had flown on their way back to South Africa.

“We are thinking about going back to South Africa some time next week,” she said this morning.

Bruno Pelizzari has never seen his grandson, Calvin Pelizzari.

INLSA

Explaining the events leading up to the highly anticipated release of the Bluff couple, Terry said: “About two weeks ago ‘Adam’ (the man Vera was negotiating with in Somalia) called my mom saying that the pirates had accepted her offer. Adam asked my mom what she wanted him to tell Bruno and Debbie and she said: ‘Tell them we’ve made an agreement and we’ll see you (Bruno) soon.’ After she hung up, my mom just screamed and cried. She told me Bruno was coming home and that we couldn’t tell anyone. I just cried.”

She said many times the family was convinced that the pair was coming home and they didn’t. She cited media reports as one cause for the delay.

Pelizzari, Calitz and yacht crew members on board the SY Choizil, were taken hostage by Somali pirates as they were about to enter the Madagascar/Mozambique Channel on October 26 2010. Twelve pirates in plain clothes, pointing AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, threatened the crew, ordered them to stop the yacht and climbed aboard.

Skipper Peter Eldridge, who refused to leave the yacht, was rescued by EU naval forces off the coast of Somalia on November 6. The couple were initially held for ransom of $10 million (R70m). That figure dropped to $4 million (R32m) and was further reduced to $1.5m (R11.5m) after months of negotiation between Hecht and the pirates.

Hecht, who was the only person communicating with the pirates spearheaded many fund-raising initiatives to raise the ransom demanded for her brother’s release.

The amount agreed upon is undisclosed at this stage.

The Somali, South African and Italian governments were key role players in securing the release, Terry said.

After news broke on Thursday morning of the couple’s release, Terry said the phone “had been going” non-stop.

“When I first saw them on TV, I didn’t recognise them at all. Bruno looks so pale. He was always in the sun, he loved the see, for him to be so pale he must have been indoors twenty-four-seven,” she said.

The couple with Hecht was escorted by the Italian government to Rome, to be reunited with Pelizzari’s mother who is visiting family there. Terry said they would be spending a few days with ‘Nonna’ (grandmother in Italian) before returning to South Africa.

Pelizzari’s other sister, Dora Hunt said she could not wait to see her brother. “Just to stare into his eyes will tell a million stories,” she said.

Another sister, Nora Wright who relocated to Durban from Bloemfontein to be closer to her family during this ordeal said: “I hope nobody ever goes through this, ever.” Wright said there were many times when she lost faith that her brother would return.

“We all lost faith, even if it was for just 10 minutes in the day. I remember saying that he was never coming back. We felt so deserted.”

Wright said the feedback from the public and social networks had been overwhelming and she was grateful. “We’re going to have a big party when he comes home,” she said.