BEIRUT, Lebanon, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Although he spent five years in captivity there, former British hostage Terry Waite has returned to Beirut on a charitable fact-finding mission.
The 64-year-old president of Y Care International, the development agency of the YMCA movement he helped found 20 years ago, said he thought he'd be apprehensive about his return but wasn't, Britain's Daily Telegraph reported.
"If there were any ghosts, they've been faced and dealt with many years ago, Waite said.
His nine-day trip will include visits to refugee camps in north Lebanon and to rehabilitation and training centers for the young in east Jerusalem.
In 1987, was trying to negotiate the release of Western hostages in his capacity as a special envoy for the Archbishop of Canterbury when he was taken hostage by the radical Islamic group Hezbollah.
He spent 1,760 days in a Beirut cell, many in solitary confinement, before being released in 1991.
