On Oct. 10, Rudolf Blechschmidt, a German engineer, was freed together with his five Afghan co-workers after a three-month hostage ordeal in Afghanistan.

Blechschmidt, 62, was one of two German engineers working on reconstruction projects who were kidnapped along with their Afghan co-workers on July 18 in Wardak province, southwest of Kabul. The other German engineer was shot during the kidnapping.

On Wednesday, German news magazine Stern published an exclusive interview with Blechschmidt, which for the first time detailed what had really happened in the Afghan mountains.

In the interview the 62-year-old accused Afghan police of complicity in the kidnapping:

After the German's construction company had gotten a job to reconstruct a dam in Afghanistan's Wardak province, Blechschmidt and his colleague, Ruediger Diedrich, 43, wanted to see the dam before signing the papers; they asked for a police escort and after initial refusals finally got 10 police armed with AK-47 rifles. Yet when a group of Taliban surrounded them and took the Germans and their Afghan co-workers hostage, the police merely watched.

"They knew that foreigners who probably had money were coming to repair the dam," he told Stern. The Taliban then drove the eight hostages into the mountains, where they endured severe beatings and abuses. To this day, Blechschmidt has trouble hearing.

"They hit me with the rifle on the back of the head, several times, really hard," Blechschmidt remembered. "My scalp was cut to the ears, and I had a concussion."

His colleague, 43-year-old Diedrich, experienced increasing trouble withstanding the hard climbing; the men walked for days, it was hot during the day and cold at night, and the hostages had little water. It was Blechschmidt, who had worked in several Middle Eastern countries including some desert regions, trying to keep the group alive.

"I told Diedrich: 'You have to drink your urine.' I did it myself," he said. "And because it was so cold at night, I told him, 'Didi, we'll hug each other and warm ourselves.'"

While Diedrich became increasingly weak, the Taliban refused to call a doctor. And it's the account surrounding his colleague's death when Blechschmidt has trouble keeping his voice.

Two days after they were kidnapped, a young Taliban fighter shot Diedrich when he refused to keep walking.

"I hated these people. I told myself, when I have to die, I'll take a few with me, they were all packed with hand grenades, and I only needed to grab one and pull the trigger," he said.

Blechschmidt said several young fighters knew of the German army's reconnaissance mission (Berlin last year sent six Panavia Tornado jets to aid the international troops in the fight against the Taliban), and said the Germans were "no better than the Americans."

After several days, the Taliban and their hostages reached a mountain hideout, where they spent the next days, supported by local villagers and other Taliban.

"They had over 1,000 fighters up there," Blechschmidt recalled.

He added the fighters got a cell-phone call every morning from their Taliban leadership, waking them up when it was time to pray.

"They had the best photo camera cell phones," Blechschmidt said. "They showed us a video clip in which they cut an American's throat. Because they don't take prisoners, 'We can't take them with us,' they said."

Meanwhile, a German special unit was trying together with Afghan officials to establish contact with the kidnappers, but according to officials, without success. Yet Blechschmidt claims a German diplomat prevented an earlier release.

"The local Taliban needed money. �� The commander called the German Embassy and handed me the phone," he said. "And I told the deputy ambassador that the Taliban want to quickly make a deal and will be happy with less money."

"But the diplomat said: 'I don't talk to the local Taliban, only to the superior guys, they make the decisions.' The commander only said one word: 'idiot.'"

For several weeks, Blechschmidt's case dropped on the Taliban's hierarchy list, mainly because they had captured several South Korean hostages. Blechschmidt was brought to a hut one day where the wall was painted with Asian letters -- apparently, the South Koreans had been hidden there as well.

It was also the time when, after several weeks together, the Taliban began to treat Blechschmidt better; the beatings had long stopped. When they brought him a letter in English from his sons, seeing that Blechschmidt was moved to tears, one of the Taliban approached him, saying: "I also read the letter, Rudolf. I also cried."

A few days later, the Germans and the Taliban organized a prisoner exchange; but when the two mediators were arrested by Afghan intelligence, the exchange failed at the last minute.

"The Afghan intelligence officers were after the ransom, and thought they can dupe the Taliban" by arresting the mediators, Blechschmidt said. "The embassy had to look for days to get the ransom back, and the intelligence service wanted to save its face. They said the mediators and two of their relatives were top terrorists �� but they were simple local Taliban from our area."

"The Taliban wanted to get these four guys back. They had gotten enough money after the stunt with the South Koreans," he said. "Now it was a question of honor."

Some of the Taliban wanted to move the German hostage to Helmand province, a sure death sentence.

Blechschmidt and his contact in the German special unit over the next days tried to convince the Afghan leadership, including President Hamid Karzai, to release the men in exchange for the hostages. But because of previous releases that had troubled Karzai, the president was unwilling to give in. Looming pressure from the German media (Blechschmidt called a radio station in Bavaria from a Taliban cell phone and told his story, which would have been aired after he hadn't called for another two days), and a call from the German chancellor to Karzai, however, facilitated the final, successful prisoner exchange. After 84 days in captivity, Rudolf Blechschmidt was free at last.

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