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Ex-hostage to write book on ordeal
Feb 14 2003
By Catrin Williams Catrin.Williams@Wme.Co.Uk, The Western Mail -The National Newspaper Of Wales
PETER Shaw, the Welsh banker held hostage for five months by armed bandits in Georgia, is to write a book.
The 58-year-old, who put pen to paper less than 48 hours ago, prom-ises to tell all about his 141-day ordeal chained to a wall in a tiny underground cell.
Mr Shaw will claim the Georgian government, under intense diplomatic pressure, may have paid kidnappers up to US$5.6m (?4m) to win his freedom.
The father of four will also reveal how U2 frontman Bono and eminent politicians lobbied governments behind the scenes to help secure his release on November 6.
"What people are interested in is how I survived - how an ordinary guy from Maesteg, a former Midland Bank manager, nothing special - got through this," he said yesterday at his Cowbridge home.
"Wherever I go people have been saying why don't you right a book? And when I came back, after a few weeks it became pretty obvious to me that a lot of people had been involved in trying to get me out of Georgia."
Mr Shaw, who had been working for the European Union in Georgia for six years, was abducted at gun-point in the capital Tbilisi on June 18 last year, less than 48 hours before he was due to return to live in Wales.
It triggered five months of impassioned shuttle diplomacy as EU special envoy Denis Corboy, the Foreign Office, his constituency MP John Smith and the British and American ambassadors to Georgia all publicly urged the ailing president Eduard Shevardnadze to secure his release.
There were unconfirmed reports that a $2m ransom had been demanded.
The EU threatened to stem its aid to the former Soviet republic, which had totalled ?205m since 1991.
Mr Shaw meanwhile endured a living hell in a pitch-black hole in the ground for almost five months before his captors bundled him out on to a mountain side and pulled a machine gun on his back. Mr Shaw fled and sought refuge in an army post.
More than three months on, no one has been arrested and Mr Shaw, who has regained at least a stone in weight, questions the bizarre circumstances surrounding his release.
"One, they shot one of their own dead and not me; two, I have gone into a Georgian army post 500m from where he was shot and someone could speak English - highly unusual - and three, a deputy minister was there," said the man who met grandson Ioan, then aged 14 weeks, for the first time on his release.
Mr Shaw has since been grilled on two occasions, totalling 25 hours, by Georgian authorities.
Three groups are believed to be behind the kidnap - those who masterminded it, those who carried it out and those who held him in the lawless and remote Pankisi Gorge.
But the authorities have been unable to find any suspects or the farm where he was kept although Mr Shaw says the gorge is the size of the Rhondda valley.
He is convinced a secret deal is protecting the perpetrators. He alleges mafia-type political figures in Georgia, unhappy with his efforts to keep its banking system free from corruption, ordered his kidnap but cannot now be brought to justice because of the pact.
"The government of Georgia paid the ransom or there was some kind of deal with the kidnappers or the people organising the kidnap which then led to my release because the events of November 6 were so strange - that's why no arrests have been made," said Mr Shaw.
He is hopeful but sceptical of a breakthrough after meeting the Georgian prosecuting office's chief investigating officer with officials in London last week.
"They say they are watching them and trying to incriminate them in other activities," said Mr Shaw, a grandfather of three. "The people from Scotland Yard really gave them a lesson on how to be a detective."
Mr Shaw says he has discovered kidnappers were texting a business acquaintance in the UK with demands of up to $5.6m.
And Mr Shaw, a jazz fan, is amazed to hear that figures such as Bono, former Irish prime minister Garrett Fitzgerald, Conservative leading lady Baroness Chalker and possibly British secret agents took up his cause.
These will feature in chapters of his first book - a personal account of
the kidnapping and life in Georgia.
"People find it uncanny that I shaved every day with a candle and put vodka on my toes to fight infection," said Mr Shaw, who is also the new star of a Dutch documentary.
The book will also include Mr Shaw's insight into the alleged culture of corruption in some nations' political and economic circles.
"There are a lot of people in Africa and Asia getting fatter and fatter and we should say more about that and not just my ordeal in a hole in the ground," said Mr Shaw, who has worked across Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
Georgia, ranked as the 10th most corrupt country in the world, is a
cash-strapped nation where the average wage is ?160 a month, police officers have reportedly not been paid for two years and Tbilisi has suffered a powercut since December.
"Taxpayers are paying huge amounts of money to go to countries like Georgia and most of this money gets into the wrong hands," said Mr Shaw.
"I believe that donor organisations like the EU and World Bank should be more accountable on how they spend their money."
He said they have taken steps to tighten their aid policies but more needs to be done.
He denied he had an axe to grind. He said, "I have not got it in for
Georgia. I like the country. I like the people but it is a very difficult place to work. Every day there is a crisis, every week there is a disaster.
"I have put a few words down but I will keep at it now."
Mr Shaw has given motivational talks across the nation since his emotional return to Wales on November 7.
Diana, his Georgian partner of six years, has started giving dance lessons and set up a mobile hairdressing business. Their son Danny, four, attends a local school and is learning English.
The Home Office is considering an application for the two to stay in the UK.
Ex-hostage to write book on ordeal
Feb 14 2003
By Catrin Williams Catrin.Williams@Wme.Co.Uk, The Western Mail -The National Newspaper Of Wales
PETER Shaw, the Welsh banker held hostage for five months by armed bandits in Georgia, is to write a book.
The 58-year-old, who put pen to paper less than 48 hours ago, prom-ises to tell all about his 141-day ordeal chained to a wall in a tiny underground cell.
Mr Shaw will claim the Georgian government, under intense diplomatic pressure, may have paid kidnappers up to US$5.6m (?4m) to win his freedom.
The father of four will also reveal how U2 frontman Bono and eminent politicians lobbied governments behind the scenes to help secure his release on November 6.
"What people are interested in is how I survived - how an ordinary guy from Maesteg, a former Midland Bank manager, nothing special - got through this," he said yesterday at his Cowbridge home.
"Wherever I go people have been saying why don't you right a book? And when I came back, after a few weeks it became pretty obvious to me that a lot of people had been involved in trying to get me out of Georgia."
Mr Shaw, who had been working for the European Union in Georgia for six years, was abducted at gun-point in the capital Tbilisi on June 18 last year, less than 48 hours before he was due to return to live in Wales.
It triggered five months of impassioned shuttle diplomacy as EU special envoy Denis Corboy, the Foreign Office, his constituency MP John Smith and the British and American ambassadors to Georgia all publicly urged the ailing president Eduard Shevardnadze to secure his release.
There were unconfirmed reports that a $2m ransom had been demanded.
The EU threatened to stem its aid to the former Soviet republic, which had totalled ?205m since 1991.
Mr Shaw meanwhile endured a living hell in a pitch-black hole in the ground for almost five months before his captors bundled him out on to a mountain side and pulled a machine gun on his back. Mr Shaw fled and sought refuge in an army post.
More than three months on, no one has been arrested and Mr Shaw, who has regained at least a stone in weight, questions the bizarre circumstances surrounding his release.
"One, they shot one of their own dead and not me; two, I have gone into a Georgian army post 500m from where he was shot and someone could speak English - highly unusual - and three, a deputy minister was there," said the man who met grandson Ioan, then aged 14 weeks, for the first time on his release.
Mr Shaw has since been grilled on two occasions, totalling 25 hours, by Georgian authorities.
Three groups are believed to be behind the kidnap - those who masterminded it, those who carried it out and those who held him in the lawless and remote Pankisi Gorge.
But the authorities have been unable to find any suspects or the farm where he was kept although Mr Shaw says the gorge is the size of the Rhondda valley.
He is convinced a secret deal is protecting the perpetrators. He alleges mafia-type political figures in Georgia, unhappy with his efforts to keep its banking system free from corruption, ordered his kidnap but cannot now be brought to justice because of the pact.
"The government of Georgia paid the ransom or there was some kind of deal with the kidnappers or the people organising the kidnap which then led to my release because the events of November 6 were so strange - that's why no arrests have been made," said Mr Shaw.
He is hopeful but sceptical of a breakthrough after meeting the Georgian prosecuting office's chief investigating officer with officials in London last week.
"They say they are watching them and trying to incriminate them in other activities," said Mr Shaw, a grandfather of three. "The people from Scotland Yard really gave them a lesson on how to be a detective."
Mr Shaw says he has discovered kidnappers were texting a business acquaintance in the UK with demands of up to $5.6m.
And Mr Shaw, a jazz fan, is amazed to hear that figures such as Bono, former Irish prime minister Garrett Fitzgerald, Conservative leading lady Baroness Chalker and possibly British secret agents took up his cause.
These will feature in chapters of his first book - a personal account of
the kidnapping and life in Georgia.
"People find it uncanny that I shaved every day with a candle and put vodka on my toes to fight infection," said Mr Shaw, who is also the new star of a Dutch documentary.
The book will also include Mr Shaw's insight into the alleged culture of corruption in some nations' political and economic circles.
"There are a lot of people in Africa and Asia getting fatter and fatter and we should say more about that and not just my ordeal in a hole in the ground," said Mr Shaw, who has worked across Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
Georgia, ranked as the 10th most corrupt country in the world, is a
cash-strapped nation where the average wage is ?160 a month, police officers have reportedly not been paid for two years and Tbilisi has suffered a powercut since December.
"Taxpayers are paying huge amounts of money to go to countries like Georgia and most of this money gets into the wrong hands," said Mr Shaw.
"I believe that donor organisations like the EU and World Bank should be more accountable on how they spend their money."
He said they have taken steps to tighten their aid policies but more needs to be done.
He denied he had an axe to grind. He said, "I have not got it in for
Georgia. I like the country. I like the people but it is a very difficult place to work. Every day there is a crisis, every week there is a disaster.
"I have put a few words down but I will keep at it now."
Mr Shaw has given motivational talks across the nation since his emotional return to Wales on November 7.
Diana, his Georgian partner of six years, has started giving dance lessons and set up a mobile hairdressing business. Their son Danny, four, attends a local school and is learning English.
The Home Office is considering an application for the two to stay in the UK.
