RI hostages deliver militants' warning<\/p>\n
Reuters, Amman<\/p>\n
Two Indonesian television reporters who had been held captive
\nby Iraqi guerrillas said their kidnappers asked them after their
\nrelease to warn foreign journalists not to come to the conflict-
\nridden country.<\/p>\n
\"They told us we should tell journalists they should not enter
\nIraq and that it is not a safe place for them and they also said
\nthey were dissatisfied by reports that discredited them,\" Meutya
\nHafid, 26, told reporters after her arrival in Amman from the
\nIraqi border with cameraman Budiyanto, 38, a day after their
\nrelease.<\/p>\n
The reporters who work for Indonesia's Metro TV said they were
\nabducted by three men after their car stopped for fuel at a
\npetrol station near Ramadi, a guerrilla stronghold west of
\nBaghdad on their way to Amman after a reporting assignment.<\/p>\n
They were then taken to a secret hideout in the desert almost
\ntwo hours away from where they were kidnapped.<\/p>\n
Meutya said she and her colleague were comforted by repeated
\nassurances from their kidnappers.<\/p>\n
\"They did not hurt us in any way. They were caring and somehow
\nwe trusted them. They told us we have nothing against you. We are
\nmujahideen (Muslim holy warriors) fighting for Islam and we don't
\nwant money,\" Meutya added.<\/p>\n
A little-known group of Iraqi insurgents, calling themselves
\nthe Mujahideen Army, had issued a video tape demanding Indonesia
\nexplain what the journalists were doing in Iraq.<\/p>\n
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has been a
\nstrong critic of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of majority
\nShi'ite Iraq. Almost all Indonesian Muslims are Sunnis.<\/p>\n
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had appealed to
\nthe insurgents to release the pair, saying they were working in a
\nfellow Muslim country in a professional capacity.<\/p>\n
More than 120 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq over the
\npast year and at least a third have been killed.<\/p>\n
Last October, the rebel Islamic Army in Iraq kidnapped two
\nIndonesian women working as maids before releasing them several
\ndays later. An Indonesian engineer was shot dead in an ambush in
\nthe northern Iraq city of Mosul last August.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/ri-hostages-deliver-militants-warning-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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