The Open Cage: The Ordeal of the Irian Jaya Hostages: Murder and Survival in the Jungles of Irian Jaya

by Daniel Start (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1998

  $8.55

  In January 1996 four young British scientists were taken hostage by Papuan tribesmen in the remote mountainous province of Irian Jaya. Swept up in the rebels' violent political struggle against the Indonesian military, they learned to admire and respect their captors and grew to fear the government forces that would become their only hope for survival. Daniel Start gives a personal account of the terrors of jungle captivity as well as the inhospitable beauty of the landscape and the gentle spirituality of the Papuans. The Open Cage is a tale of a forced journey through mountainous forests and makeshift prison camps, and of a desperate escape from captors whose peaceful nature has been turned by the forces of war to hatred and murder.

• Used

  Hardcover
  1997

  $7.00

  While making a study of the flora and fauna of Irian Jaya in Papua New Guinea, four young British scientists were captured by the primitive tribespeople and held hostage for months. Spirited away within the sacred forest, forced to scavenge for food and live, in a way they had never dreamt of, like the native people, they were constantly under threat for their lives. Their eventual release was bittersweet. Before they returned safe to the Western world two of the Indonesian members of their group were hacked to death in front of them by the rebels.