Indonesian journalists set free

Agencies, Baghdad/Jakarta

After being held hostage by Islamic militants for seven days in war-wrecked Iraq, Metro TV journalist Meutya Hafid and cameraman Budiyanto appeared safe and well and were heading for Iraqi- Jordanian border on Monday night.

The pair were released by the little-known Jaish al-Mujahedeen or Army of Warriors, the government and Iraqi authorities confirmed on Monday.

An Iraqi official, Sheikh Hamed Dulimi, from the Committee of Muslim scholars, said the pair had decided to go straight to Jordan instead of heading first to the Indonesian Embassy in Iraq.

The news was greeted with joy by the journalists' families. Speaking to Metro TV, Budiyanto's wife, Lestari thanked God for his release. "I never lost hope that he would return home," she said.

"I am very happy, very grateful for my daughters' release because that's what I have been waiting for," Hafid's mother, Metti, said.

The militants also handed over a video to the APTN news network showing Metro TV reporter Meutya Hafid and cameraman Budiyanto shaking hands with a militant, whose face was masked with a red checkered scarf.

"For reasons or suspicion, these two journalists were arrested. Based on the goodwill they have showed, and respecting the feelings of brotherhood and Islam between the two countries, and respecting the Indonesian anti-occupation role, we have decided to release the two journalists without any conditions and ransom," said the militant, reading from a notebook.

Both Meutya, 26, and Budiyanto, 36, appeared to be in good shape, standing outside against a rocky dirt outcrop, wearing thick jackets to brave a cold weather.

The video showed the militant handed Budiyanto a pen, a Koran, and a white Muslim prayer cap that he immediately put on after kissing the Koran. Meutya smiled faintly after being given a scarf and a Koran.

It was not clear when the video was made.

A member of the Sunni Muslim authorities in the Iraqi city of Ramadi told AFP on Monday the journalists had been freed in Ramadi, a town west of the capital, where the journalists initially went missing.

The two were taken hostage last Tuesday as they were driving along a dangerous road from Jordan to Baghdad.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said on Monday the government had been informed of the journalists' release.

Later in the day, spokesman Marty Natalegawa said the government has managed to establish contact with Meutya and Budiyanto.

The two journalists were on their way out of Iraq on Monday afternoon, or evening (Jakarta time), he added.

"Around 3:30 p.m. (Jakarta time), Indonesian Embassy in Amman received a phone call and a SMS text from Meutya who says that she and her cameraman were traveling out of Iraq," Marty said.

Hassan said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who appealed on Friday to the militants to set the journalists free, were delighted with the news and urged the foreign ministry to soon verify the news.

Hassan said Indonesian Red Cross chairman Mar'ie Muhammad is now in Abu Dhabi, making a contact with United Arab Emirate's Crescent Cross officials who had earlier helped the release of two Indonesian workers taken hostage in Iraq.

As the Indonesians returned home more news emerged of an Iraqi journalist being taken hostage in Mosul.

Raeda Wazzan, a reporter for the government-funded Iraqiya television station, was kidnapped on Sunday by armed men, who also took her 10-year-old son, the channel said.

More than 190 foreigners, including two Indonesian women, have been taken hostage in Iraq in the past year and more than 30 of them were killed.

The two Indonesian who went to the Middle East to work as maids, were briefly kidnapped and released in September.

Italian reporter Giuliana Sgrena of Il Manifesto newspaper was abducted in Baghdad on Feb. 4 by a group called Mujahedeen Without Borders. She appeared in a video delivered to APTN last Wednesday, begging for life and warning foreigners to leave the country.

French journalist Florence Aubenas of Liberation daily is still missing after disappeared on Jan. 5 after she left a Baghdad hotel.