An Italian colleague who worked with Amanda Lindhout in Iraq said her kidnapped friend is determined and strong and “will get through very well.

“It’s not a question of braveness, but of practice and she is a practical woman,” says Barbara Schiavulli in an e-mail to the Red Deer Advocate. “She knows enough (about) our job to know what not to do.

“And usually in Somalia kidnappings are just a matter of money.”

Lindhout, who is from the Red Deer area and regularly contributed to the Advocate, was kidnapped with an Australian and a Somali colleague on Saturday.

All are reportedly unharmed. It is believed they are being held about 80 km outside of Mogadishu, Somali’s capital.

Schiavulli says she met the 27-year-old Lindhout in Baghdad last March and they hit it off.

“When you are in a conflict zone there is no half measure, you like each other or not. We did.”

After weeks of working only with men, Lindhout was excited that Schiavulli was arriving at the Palestine Hotel, adding jokingly, “only a woman knows the need of a decent conversation.

“I was only 35 but (in) her eyes I was sort of a war veteran.”

Schiavulli says Lindhout, “tall, blond with her big clear eyes,” was able to blend in with local women by dressing like them and wearing big sunglasses to cover her eyes.

The women travelled to Mahmoudia and Sadr City and knew their job was dangerous.

“But we took care about everything. But in this job you can check everything and still something could go wrong.

“It’s something that you keep in mind all the time. But it’s our job, it’s what we like, what we are trained for.

“And it makes sense when you get a good story.”

The women had a brush with kidnapping in Iraq when a professor who guided them on one journey was taken, the same day he had refused to guide the two a second time because of the danger.

Schiavulli said she and Lindhout were deeply worried and relieved when the man was released.

In 2005, Schiavulli received a cellphone call from an Italian colleague who was being kidnapped and Schiavulli was able to raise the alarm.

“Now it seems to me to live in a deja vu,” she says.

Lindhout had asked Schiavulli to join her on the Somali trip, but work commitments kept her back.

“She sent me all the information for travelling and I’m truly sorry for not being with her. I doubt I could do anything different but it’s still difficult to feel that there is nothing I can do to change the situation.”

At a recent conference Schiavulli was at, someone asked why countries should pay ransoms for people who choose to go to dangerous places.

A “civil society” has the right to receive the truth and to protect those putting themselves in danger to provide it, she says.

“It would be the same for a policeman or a firefighter. Culture and information (are) no less important than a house that burns.”

Schiavulli asks that if Lindhout’s parents are contacted, “just tell them that if there is someone that can get through all this situation, (it’s) her.”

Contact Paul Cowley at pcowley@reddeeradvocate.com