The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Kabul

Afghan kidnappers held a Canadian journalist for four weeks blindfolded in an underground cave in which she could barely stand, the journalist said in a videotape released Sunday.

Mellissa Fung, a reporter for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., said in the video that her captors guarded her in the tiny cave for the first three weeks of her abduction. In the last week, they chained her hands and feet and she was left by herself, she said.

Fung said her captors never hurt her but that she was kept blindfolded.

She was freed Saturday after tribal elders and provincial council members negotiated her release, said Adam Khan Serat, spokesman for the provincial governor in Wardak. Serat said no ransom was paid.

Afghan intelligence agents arrested three people suspected of involvement in the kidnapping, the intelligence agency said.

In the videotape, taken by Afghan intelligence agents and released to the public Sunday, Fung can be seen telling Canada's ambassador that she's not hurt and that she hopes people won't make "a big fuss" over her situation.

"I'm fine, really, I'm fine. I'm just happy to be here," she said.

When Canada's Ambassador walked up to greet her with a hug, Fung said: "I'm not smelling great." She later said she hoped to take a shower.

Afghanistan's intelligence chief, Amrullah Saleh, can be seen questioning Fung on the videotape. He asked Fung if her captors kept her in a well or in a house. Authorities last month freed two kidnapped Afghans who were kept captive in a well.

"In a cave. It was very small," Fung replied. "They dug a small hole t and the hole (entrance) was here, and then there was a little tunnel that went into the cave." Fung then drew Saleh a sketch of the cave.

"Could you stand in the cave?" Saleh asked.

"Barely, and I am short," she replied.

Fung told Saleh that she couldn't thank him enough. "There's no need to," Saleh replied.

John Cruickshank, publisher of CBC news, said Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper "got directly involved from the first day" of Fung's abduction.

On Saturday, Harper praised the Afghan government for its cooperation.