Hamill: Abuse affected treatment
Sunday, May 9, 2004 Posted: 0401 GMT (1201 HKT)
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/South/05/08/hamill.abuse/MACON, Mississippi (CNN) -- Former hostage Thomas Hamill says photos of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqis held in a Baghdad prison affected the way he was treated in the last days before he escaped.
He said he scaled back the celebration of his return home so he wouldn't anger captors of Americans still being held.
With yellow ribbons tied around trees, Hamill's hometown of Macon, Mississippi welcomed him back, just six days after he escaped from a farmhouse 50 miles north of Baghdad.
"I knew I was coming home some day," Hamill told reporters. "They were not going to keep this boy".
Hamill, 44, was driving a truck for Halliburton Corp. subsidiary KBR when his convoy was ambushed on April 9.
Four other American contractors were found dead and two are still missing from the convoy. One U.S. soldier was later found dead and one soldier is still missing.
Hamill said he chose a low-key reception Saturday to prevent angering those who still hold his co-workers hostage.
"I didn't want to play this thing up like a big grand slam home run," Hamill said.
The prisoner abuse scandal -- with photos of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqis held in the Abu Ghraib prison -- emerged in his last week of captivity and it caused his conditions to worsen, he said.
"That had an affect on me, captive the last few days," Hamill said. "I hate that happened. They asked me about it."
"My treatment had changed and I was afraid it was going to get a lot worse," he said. "They moved me numerous times during the ordeal."