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Indonesia says 2 journalists seized in Iraq
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-02-18 15:07
Two Indonesian television journalists have been seized by Iraqi militants in
the western city of Ramadi, an Iraqi guerrilla stronghold, a government
spokesman in Jakarta said on Friday.
"We have received information ... from the owner of a car rented by two
journalists from Metro TV that on February 15, their vehicle heading for Ramadi
was halted by an armed group," foreign affairs spokesman Marty Natalegawa told
reporters.
"The car, driver and the two journalists have been taken to an unknown
location. However, I will not use the word abduction yet," he told a news
conference.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has been a staunch critic
of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Natalegawa said his office had been told by Metro TV, Indonesia's only
24-hour news broadcaster, that the journalists were in Iraq but had not
contacted their employer recently.
"They said there were two staff assigned (in Iraq) whose whereabouts are now
unknown," he said.
Natalegawa did not give the names of the journalists.
Last October, the rebel Islamic Army in Iraq kidnapped two Indonesian women
working as maids before releasing them several days later.
An Indonesian engineer was shot dead in an ambush in the northern Iraq city
of Mosul last August.
It is unclear how many Indonesians are working in Iraq, but there are
believed to be fewer than nationals from other Asian countries such as the
Philippines and India.
The militant Islamic Army in Iraq has previously demanded Indonesia's
government free Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who is facing trial in Indonesia
on terrorism charges relating to deadly bombings in 2002 and 2003.
The journalists had rented a car from Amman, Natalegawa said. The car company
reported a Jordanian driver had spoken to witnesses who saw the car being taken,
he said.
Indonesia had sent an envoy to Ramadi to try to confirm the report, he said.
"We want to ascertain first ... whether this is an abduction. We want to
concentrate on the truth of this report," he said.
"The (witnesses) said they saw the vehicle entering Ramadi around 1 p.m. It
was stopped and taken away," he said.
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