SURVIVAL:

At this moment, a common psychological phenomenon may be at work, to your disadvantage. Behavioral experts call it the "deny and repress" syndrome.

It is the tendency of people to ignore or reject information which is particularly upsetting or frightening such as the idea that you might be taken hostage.

The statistical chances of your becoming a victim may be slim. But however strong your temptation right now to deny and repress the possibility, the truth remains: the risk is there, and getting greater.

Hostage taking by terrorist, criminals, and the mentally disturbed has reached alarming proportions in some areas of the world.

Headlines in the U.S. press are made daily by these incidents, particularly those perpetrated by criminals and the mentally disturbed. Incidents are increasing at an ever-faster rate despite the intensified efforts of government and law enforcement agencies.

Increasingly, businessmen with American companies are the targets of choice.

Some were seized at home while watching TV with their families, most on their way to and from work, one while eating lunch in his firm's cafeteria.

The motive behind their kidnapping have been varied.

Irrationality often characterizes hostage taking. Kidnapping is not an area in which safe predictions can be based on pure logic.

Your assessment of whether you are a likely hostage candidate may be entirely different from that of would-be kidnappers.

PAST KIDNAP VICTIMS HAVE INCLUDED:

To someone or some group, sometime, somewhere, for reasons you may not perceive, you might look like the ideal lever with which to pry loose political or financial concessions.

It should not be viewed as an inflexible prescription of "do's and don'ts"; hostage taking has too many variables for that. The information presented here is meant to equip you with options that you will want to consider if you are ever seized.

And it should help prepare you for the feelings and spontaneous reactions which the trauma of such a life threatening situation induce.

Kidnapping or hostage taking usually is a process, consisting of a series of distinct but interrelated stages.

THE KIDNAP PROCESS:

In each stage, the perpetrators are involved in different activities. So are concerned third parties such as family, employer, and law enforcement agencies. The activities of each participant in this crisis generally affects the others.

For the hostage, too, each stage is dramatically different. Each produces different types of risks, creates new physical and emotional stresses - and demands critical shifts in behaviour to survive intact.

If you are taken, you will probably suffer violent, disorienting, dehumanizing experiences. But by learning now about what is likely to happen then, you will be better able to anticipate and cope with each new development as it unfolds.

To assume that you will be taken hostage sometime in the future is unduly pessimistic. But smugly assuming you won't be seized is a disservice to yourself. To "deny and repress" what we are about to discuss on the assumption you are safe will deprive you of information that someday could help you survive.

CONFINEMENT:

Once you reach the place where you will be held prisoner, the physical dangers will probably diminish. But the psychological stress tends to increase steadily during the first weeks of captivity.

In the confinement stage, you have opportunities to take control of your life, within a limited, but important, framework. How well you do will markedly influence your ultimate psychological well-being and may determine your success in reducing the hostility of your captors.

Your Kidnappers will see you as a tool for forcing total response to their political and /or financial "ransom" demands. They may also view you as a symbol of an institution or way of life they despise. Their basic options are:

• Kill you because their demands are not being or will not be met,

• Keep you alive in hopes their demands may be met,

• Negotiate with a willingness to settle for less than their full demand, or

• Free you and abandon their demands, perhaps surrendering in the process.

They are unlikely to consider all of these possibilities at the outset, particularly those involving concessions. As fighter for a "noble" cause, prepared to die or kill for their beliefs, they may steadfastly insist that their demands are absolutely non-negotiable.

Quick capitulation on their part is highly unlikely. Some victims have been held for months.

Meanwhile, your captors will probably be arrogant with the power they hold over you. You can expect them to:

• Barrage you with their extremist politics and views of the world,

• Insist vehemently that you are on the "wrong" or "losing" side of whatever social or political conflict they perceive.

• Portray you as a representative of "evil" forces to justify their kidnap-and-ransom scheme, and enforce trivial demands about your personal behaviour to underscore their superiority and your inferiority.

Efforts at crude brainwashing may be employed.

This could include:

• Planting doubts in your mind about the commitment of the authorities or your company to secure your release.

• Isolating or seeming to abandon you to heighten your fears and prevent your regaining full composure.

• Intimidating you by flaunting knowledge of your personal life you did not know they possessed.

• Continually drilling you on a single line of thought, and/or persistently threatening your life and well-being, either directly or by implication.

These tactics are designed to force or persuade you to make statements that will favour their pressure for ransom or their campaign for media attention for their cause.

YOUR CAPTORS WANT TO DEMORALIZE, DEGRADE, AND DEHUMANIZE YOU.

A weakened, anomalistic "thing" is easier to manage than a vibrant, thinking human being and easier to kill if it comes to that.

You are likely to be kept in filthy surroundings, given poor facilities for personal hygiene, denied toilet facilities, deprived of sleep, and fed substandard or unsanitary food.

The kidnap victim may have serious adjustments to make.

Your first priority will be to fight quietly to maintain or regain your equilibrium, your self-control, and your self-esteem.

Then you will need to work on countering, or at least neutralizing, your environment and the negative and abusive behaviour of your captors.

Your basic goals should be:

• To maintain your own mental and physical health in the face of whatever conditions you have to endure.

• To persuade your captors to provide the best facilities possible under the circumstances.

DO NOT ANTICIPATE EARLY RELEASE

You may be held for a long time. To plan otherwise will inhibit your ability to deal with your situation and leave you vulnerable to boredom, disappointment, depression, fear.

COPING WITH CONFINEMENT:

In any stressful experience, the effect on an individual, and their reactions will differ greatly.

Differing types of person will cope in their individual way, however, there are common links which have continually appeared:

• The individual who adopts an "accept and adapt" philosophy, appears to cope more adequately, than those who refuse to accept the incident has occurred, in practise, it would seem that the victim has to accept what has happened, and may well have to exist in restricted, often poor conditions, having to make the best of it.

• Those who retain control over their emotions, particularly in public, appear to more easily retain self respect.

• Coping with fear, boredom, isolation or restriction appears to be a major difficulty. Those actively taking an interest in their immediate surrounding appear better able to cope with boredom.

• Building Human Relationships:

Try to:

Project the image of a reasonable intelligent person who can accept adversity with dignity rather than an aggressive, emotionally unpredictable charge who must be bound and watched every moment.

Display neither bravado (which may provoke brutality) nor cowardice (which will deepen your captors' contempt for you).

Understand that you will have to comply with your captor's orders, either willingly or under force.

Avoid pointless arguments over political or cultural concepts on which you disagree - to the extent possible, live your values instead of making them topics of conversation.

Avoid taking sides in your captor's internal quarrels and calling attention to their failures and shortcomings.

Take an honest interest in them as individuals getting them to talk to you may be difficult, but you may be successful in establishing communications at meal times or when you are alone with a single guard.

Show gratitude for favours and watch for opportunities to do some favours yourself.

Use the word "we", to encourage your captors to think of you as sharing mutual concerns you do have a common interest in the outcome of this situation.

Practising relaxation and static muscle exercise techniques, assist in the dispersal and management of stress reaction.

Manage yourself.

If you cannot take charge of things as your accustomed to doing when facing a problem at home or at your office.

You can make some order out of your chaos, set goals for yourself, and organize your activities.

Give close attention to:

• Personal cleanliness.

• Clothing repair.

• Physical exercise.

• Relaxation and anti-tension techniques.

• Mental activities, such as reading, writing, memory exercise, and imaginary problem-solving.

• Spiritual nourishment.

• Your sense of humour, including your ability to laugh at yourself.

Even if your ingenuity is taxed and the opportunities limited to pursue these tasks, concentrate on them down to the most minute detail.

Your physical exercise program is particularly important. Exercise can help keep you physically healthy even in the smallest space.

Anything you can do to preserve your mental and physical health and your personal appearance and to ward off apathy and depression is a constructive use of time.

Manage Your Time.

Even without a watch or locked in a windowless room you can be alert to clues that signal the passing of time, such as changes in temperature (from the heat of day to the cold of evening), meal patterns.

Outside sounds (birds signing, traffic noise, factory whistles, children at play or going to school).

Establish some kind of crude 30 - 60 calendar which can be extended before it runs out;

mentally celebrate holidays, birthdays, and any other special events you can think of to break your monotony and heighten your anticipation.

Establish a regular schedule for:

Personal hygiene,

Housekeeping,

Work tasks,

Exercise,

Mental stimulation, and sleep.

Try to manage your days and weeks in as close a conformity with your normal lifestyle as you can and live by that plan.

Manage Your Personal Environment.

To the extent possible, treat the space in which you are confined like a home:

• Consider personalizing it by rearranging things as much as you can.

• Designate specific places for your various activities.

• Keep the place clean.

• Add to the furnishings, if possible, display photos of the family which you may have in your wallet.

• Ask for things you need, without appearing to demand anything, but do not expect all promises to be kept.

Your best chance for survival lies in showing that you can "take it" and are willing to work hard to take care of your needs.

As time passes, you will inevitably worry about your job and your family, about whether anyone "outside" is concerned with your fate.

Through prayer, meditation, or whatever other spiritual support works best for you, strive to maintain your faith in yourself and in others and in the eventual triumph of good over evil.

Third Parties are working to secure your release.

Progress may be slow or seemingly (to you) non-existent.

The third parties may be grappling with elusive communications and baffling, perhaps impossible, ransom demands from your assailants.

"Buying time" may be a deliberate tactic by experts in dealing with hostage and kidnap situations.

Usually the more the negotiations can be stretched out, the more chance there is for your captors' resolve to attenuate and for a favourable outcome that enhances the chances of the will to survive use of ploys.

BASIC GUIDELINES TO ADOPT:

• Extensive studies of the hostage incidents have produced a broad series of basic guidelines to assist hostage survival:

• Accept the situation, await resolution, do not attempt heroics.

• Avoid total dependency on your captors.

• Hostage takers may attempt to break the spirit of the hostages, and reduce them to a state of total dependence i.e. permission to eat, sleep, use of toilet facilities, etc.

Incidents have occurred when victims have been stripped naked, derided, as part of the humiliation process. It is important that the hostages realise what is happening, and where possible quickly establish a routine, as an attempt to exercise control over their environment.

A quick assessment of the surrounding should be undertaken with a maximum of effort to maintain dignity without arrogance or aggression.

Adopting a "Grey man" demeanour, has much in its favour. Do not stand out or challenge, avoid being singled out, will do much to avoid provoking hostage takers to demonstrate their power or the seriousness of their threat.

Where possible avoid eye contact which tends to be provoking and emotionally arousing. However, when being directly spoken to, the hostage should look at the captor, as this tends to establish rapport. Care should be exercised not to stare at our look down upon captors, as this tends to incur threat feelings.

Wherever possible hostages should try and rest. This, no doubt, is more easily said than done, however, invariably after the initial panic, both hostages and captors have a tendency to become tired and may eventually become exhausted.

It has been known for hostage takers to use drugs to overcome exhaustion.

Hostages rarely have this option and should, where possible, try to conserve energy and avoid stress related problems.

Hostage situations are extremely stressful, and it has been known for all parties within the captivity location to fall asleep enabling rescue plans to be implemented with greater ease.

Avoid making suggestions. Certain individuals have a need to constantly contribute to a situation. Certain individuals have a need to constantly contribute to a situation. In hostage situations this may be dangerous, particularly if the situation deteriorates, as the hostage could be.

The offering of information by the hostage could place the hostage takers in a decision making role, which could act to tire the hostage taker and possibly de-motivate them.

As an example, this may be useful in an aircraft hijack situation; the captain is in a position to offer considerable technical information whereby the hijacker becomes overloaded with the decisions to be made.

However, it is a prime importance that the hijacker feels he has total responsibility, rather than the captain attempting to take control.

Hostages if asked by hostage takers, should be prepared to become involved in negotiations. In this event:

Answer questions from the law enforcement negotiator with "yes" or "no". Indicate the hostage takers are listening in. Eg. "The environment here isn't very clean" inserted in the conversation sufficiently out of context, but naturally in order not to alert the hostage taker.

If forced to lie, misrepresent or mislead the hostage takers, state another non truth ie. "are you taking care of my cat?" where no cat exists etc.

At all times extreme care is needed to ensure such signals are not obvious.

Be Observant

Avoid being drawn into arguments with captors, invariably difficult hostages are the first to be executed.

Be patient. Time is on the side of the hostage. Whenever such incidents occur, a well practised and proven response is initiated.

Believe every possible effort is being made to obtain a resolution and the most useful contribution a hostage can make is to remain calm, and not raise the emotional level.

In the event that a rescue operation is implemented the hostage should present as small a target as possible ie. lie on the floor, remaining in such a position until instructed otherwise by rescue forces.

It is likely that such an action will be sudden, noisy, possibly accompanied by CS gas, stun grenades and weapon discharge. There is no doubt the hostage will be shocked and incapable of effective personal action.

At all times obey explicitly the instruction of the rescue force.

It is very probable that the rescuers will not be able to differentiate between the hostage and the hostage taker, treating everyone in the same manner until they have established complete control.

A hostage resisting or behaving in an aggressive manner could be mistaken for a hostage taker thereby risking injury or even death. Keep hands in full view, be prepared for rough handling, offer no resistance to rescuers.

Attempting an escape. This is a contentious issue. Military prisoners of war, as a matter of duty, are expected to attempt escape.

Invariably they will have undergone some training in resistance to interrogation and escape and evasion techniques. However, the hostage situation is very different, and attempting an escape has been achieved, but it can go wrong; examples exist where hostage takers, believing an escape attempt was being made, has resulted in them brutally exerting their authority.

In certain instances where a hostage from a group of hostages has been prematurely released or achieved an escape, they have experienced extreme feelings of guilt with regard to their good fortune - the survivor syndrome.

An escape attempt may well result in a worsening of the situation not only for the escapee but for the remaining hostages by way of retaliation by the captors.

RESOLUTION:

Sooner or later, the incident will end, hopefully with your safe release. The climax may, however, place you in greater jeopardy, at least temporarily, than the HOLDING stage.

Hostage Release:

The hostage himself is rarely released simultaneously, and research shows the delay between payment and release is on average 30 hours, though it has been as short as six hours and as long as 17 days.

In most cases of kidnap, the hostage is released on a deserted road within walking distance of a telephone, and sometimes close to his home.

Usually this takes place at night from a vehicle, with the hostage blindfolded.

The most unwelcome of all possibilities is that the hostage is NOT released and the kidnappers make a renewed demand. This does not occur often, and happens mostly in Italy.

This occurred in 12 (4%) of the 262 negotiations.

At the point of your release may be excited, nervous, possibly frustrated and angry, and prone to over react to any behaviour or incident that seems threatening.

You should be especially alert and in control of yourself.

Pay close attention to any instructions you are given and act with careful deliberation.

Rescue Attempt:

If a fight develops with law enforcement agencies try to:

• Take cover behind a thick wall or other barrier,

• Stay out of windows and away from doors, and

• Keep down until you are certain it is safe to get up and move, or better still, until the police arrive.

The police, will be interested, if possible, in apprehending your assailants. Both their primary concern is to free you. They generally will plan and execute any assault on the hostage stronghold with that consideration in mind.

If they opt for or are pushed into a showdown with your assailants, it may involve a Violent, all-out attack on the location where you are being held.

Selective precision firing by trained marksmen, and/or Chemical agents, such as teargas, shot or thrown into the building.

Increasingly, however, lawmen are improving techniques for negotiating the release of hostages rather than attacking to force it.

Remember: YOU ARE NOT SAFE UNTIL YOU HAVE RETURNED TO YOUR OWN PEOPLE.

BE PREPARED FOR ODD PSYCHOLOGICAL REACTIONS.

A strange phenomenon of hostage taking is that the hostage may come to identify more closely with his or her captors than with the rescuers.

Because you have been so totally dependent on them, have shared intimate surroundings, and my have come to know them as individuals, you may find yourself sympathizing with your assailants, even to the point that you are reluctant to leave their company!

This identification phenomenon becomes more pronounced if a police assault possibility develops. There are many cases on record where the identification has occurred in reverse. Terrorists and criminals have developed bonds with their victims.

POST TRAUMA RECOVERY:

Some readjustment problems are possible after a hostage incident. Their nature and severity may depend on the duration of captivity and the treatment received at the hands of the captors.

Terrorists often release hostages to someone in the media or notify journalists where the victim can be found.

This can heighten the media coverage of the incident... particularly if the victim can be coaxed into making revealing commentary. It is seldom in the hostage's best interest to grant an interview a this time.

The emotional strain of release can be almost as great as the point of capture. Unguarded comments to the press have been made which were sorely regretted on reflection. The returned victim should say nothing to the press other than expressions of delight over the release and his desire to see his family.

Opinions about the captors and the captivity experience should be left to a later time.

Some released kidnap victims have:

• Been critical of themselves and of authorities for not handling things differently,

• Felt ashamed at not having attempted escape,

• Felt guilty about the ransom paid,

• Been uncomfortable in relationships with family, friends, and co-workers, and/or

• Developed emotional and physical problems,

• Sexual adjustment.

• Insomnia,

• Loss of appetite,

• Unpredictable and eruptive temperament,

• Diminished motivation, and/or a sense of detachment and alienation.

These are natural reactions. Handled properly, they have faded with time. Executives are accustomed to being in charge, to giving orders, and to having things happen.

Having been forced into a position of helpless subservience can shake this self-image.

SORTING OUR, AND EVALUATING THE, EXPERIENCE IN A REALISTIC LIGHT CAN HELP RESTORE EQUILIBRIUM.

Although the kidnap process may be a traumatic ordeal, and extended vacation immediately after release may not be the best antidote.

Getting back to work quickly may be preferable. One danger after a hostage experience is feeling like "damaged merchandise", a pariah, to family, organization, and friends.

Countering this feeling with performance as quickly as possible may keep it from becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy that will permanently affect an executive's career and homelike.

Talking about the experiences helps you get over them.

In addition, PROFESSIONAL COUNSELLING IS ADVISABLE. A thorough medical exam after a hostage experience is recommended.

Successful "re-entry" is a complex, highly individual process. It demands a co-operative approach, involving victim, family, friends, and organization.

From research of 262 incidents, we have found that 61% ended in payment of a ransom, while other hostages escaped or were rescued. In 26 cases, the hostage did not return safely.

Statistical breakdown:

a. Ransom payment 61%

b. Rescue by police 21%

c. Death 10%

d. Release without concession 6%

e. Escape 2%

©1994, Alan Bell