Daniele Mastrogiacomo, the Italian reporter just released after 15 days in the hands of Taliban kidnappers, said on Monday that he will never return to Afghanistan.
Speaking to the media only 14 hours after his plane touched down in Rome, a tired-looking Mastrogiacomo said he intended to continue working as a journalist but would choose less risky locations in future.
"I'm not a hero. I'll carry on doing what I have always done but I won't go back to Afghanistan," he said.
Mastrogiacomo denied suggestions that he had taken unnecessary risks in his attempt to interview Taliban leaders, putting himself in a dangerous situation in order to go after a scoop.
"I'm a journalist. I try to describe the way things are, even if it's increasingly difficult. I wasn't worried at all. I didn't think anything serious could happen."
The 52-year-old reporter, who was forced to watch his Afghan driver being decapitated, described his Taliban kidnappers as "very young and very religious".
"It would be good if the Taliban didn't return (to power) in Afghanistan. It's a movement that should be kept at a distance, not only because of what they do but also because of its principles and its approach to life, which is completely detached from reality".
He said the group had made five different videos of him making appeals to Italian authorities, including one in which a young Taliban fighter held a rifle to his head. Only one of the video clips, in which no weapons were visible, has found its way out of the country.
Mastrogiacomo, who was welcomed back home late on Tuesday by his wife and daughter, said there was also a video made of his driver's slaying in which he also appeared.
"It was hard, it was a moment when I felt under immense pressure," he said.
The reporter, who in the past has covered conflicts in the Middle East and Iraq, has already spent several hours talking to prosecutors about his abduction.
In the course of the press conference at the Rome offices of his La Repubblica newspaper, he avoided answering some questions, citing Italian prosecutors' requests for discretion.
When describing the details of his kidnapping, he said he believed he had been "sold" but he did not say by whom. Without going into details, he said that his slain driver, a 25-year-old Afghani, had behaved in an "ambiguous" way throughout the experience.
A Taliban commander said last week that the driver had been killed because he was a "spy".
Mastrogiacomo was released on Monday following talks conducted on the ground in Afghanistan by Gino Strada, the founder of the humanitarian aid organisation Emergency.
POLITICAL POLEMICS CONTINUE.
The Italian government continued to come under fire on Wednesday over its decision to push for the release of up to five Taliban prisoners held in Kabul in exchange for Mastrogiacomo's life.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed to release the prisoners after talks with Prodi and Italian authorities, but said it was an extraordinary move which would not be repeated.
Many in the centre-right opposition accused Prodi of "giving in to terrorists" and encouraging the Taliban to carry out more kidnappings.
Critics also argued that "freeing Taliban terrorists" went against the purpose of NATO's mission to secure Afghanistan and defeat a Taliban insurgency there.
Forza Italia senator Renato Schifani also said that the decision to allow Gino Strada to mediate between Italian authorities and the Taliban was "offensive" to national institutions.
But the opposition was not united in its criticism. Forza Italia spokesman Paolo Bonaiuti said bluntly: "Hostages must be freed".
Asked about the way his release had been secured, Mastrogiacomo said: "I don't think that what was done violated the autonomy and sovereignty of the Afghan state.
Premier Romano Prodi, who was there to meet Mastrogiacomo as he arrived at Rome airport late on Tuesday, on Wednesday praised the "teamwork" that had made his release possible and glossed over the polemics.
Speaking to national radio, Prodi listed the various institutions and people who had collaborated during the tense days of negotiations with the reporter's Taliban captors.
"It was teamwork: the premier, the foreign ministry's crisis centre, our ambassador in Kabul. Gino Strada was also a big help in ending this dramatic business happily," he said.
Addressing parliament, Deputy Foreign Minister Franco Danieli also drew attention to the role of NATO allies in securing the release. He mentioned specifically the importance of the "full collaboration" of the United States and Britain.
In his remarks to parliament, the deputy foreign minister noted that there was still no official confirmation that the Afghan interpreter kidnapped with Mastrogiacomo had been released as promised.
