'Metro TV' journalist considers herself lucky

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Meutya Hafid, a Metro TV journalist who was held captive late last month by Iraqi insurgents, must have considered herself lucky twice over when she was finally freed by her captors.

Not only did she escape the worst possible fate; she managed to escape with just the few resources that would safeguard her presence in the war-torn country.

Meutya said that although all their state-of-the-art equipment was insured by her employer, she and fellow cameraman Budiyanto were not covered by life insurance for their work as journalists in the troubled country.

"Did you know that we are not insured by our company? I don't know if our company will start insuring its employees after this incident. You'd better ask our company's management," Meutya told a function organized by the Australian Alumni Association (Ikama) earlier this week.

The 26-year-old anchorwoman is a graduate of the University of New South Wales.

Meutya said that prior to her departure to Iraq, she had little information about political developments in Iraq.

"There was something urgent that prevented Metro TV from carrying out research on Iraq. Besides, we were preoccupied by the tsunami that struck Aceh," she said.

Meutya said that she had had little time to learn about conditions in Iraq as she had been in Jakarta for less than a week after her assignment in Aceh.

"The first priority was to get to Iraq first and do the research later," Meutya said, adding that due to time constraints she and Budiyanto received their visas upon their arrival in Amman, Jordan.

"We had to beg immigration officers in Amman to allow us to enter Iraq," she said.

Meutya and Budiyanto were taken hostage as they were driving on the long, dangerous road from Jordan to Baghdad. They were seized by the little-known Jaish al-Mujahedeen (Army of Warriors) and held at a secret location near the town of Ramadi.

The two had just finished covering Iraq's first democratic election, but were then given an assignment to cover a major Shi'ite holiday.

The Metro TV journalists were held hostage for seven days and finally set free after scores of the country's leaders, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) speaker Hidayat Nur Wahid, appeared on international television networks appealing for their release.

When asked about the most valuable lesson she learned from the ordeal, Meutya said: "I learned that God has played a big role in what we went through. When we were in the desert, we could be the target of aerial attack by U.S. occupation forces, but we are still alive.

"We were also grateful for the fact that we reached safe hands unharmed; a number of journalists were killed on their way to freedom."

The kidnapping incident, however, did not dissuade Meutya from engaging in risk-prone journalism in the future.

"I'd still like to go to Iraq in the near future -- maybe in the next eight or nine months after the dust from the election has settled.

"Iraq will still be an interesting place from which to produce stories," she said.