Friday, 18 February 2005By Sinta Satriana
JAKARTA - 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 says.
"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 on Friday.
"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.
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Friday, 18 February 2005
Reuters via Swissinfo
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