Indonesian journalists set free

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.