RI seeks release of two kidnapped journalists
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government is making efforts to help release Metro TV reporter Meutya Hafid and cameraman Budiyanto who were abducted by gunmen in Iraq earlier this week, officials here said on Saturday.
"We will use all formal and informal channels that are available," presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal told The Jakarta Post.
He said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs dispatched on Saturday a crisis settlement team, led by diplomat Triyono Wibowo, to Amman, Jordan, to work for the release of the journalists.
Separately, foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said the government had also contacted Red Cross and Red Crescent representatives in neighboring countries as well as influential figures in the Middle East to secure the reporters' freedom.
Indonesia was also asking influential Sunni Muslim scholar Yusuf al-Qardawi to appeal for the journalists' release, said another foreign ministry official, Yuri Thamrin.
The National Intelligence Agency (BIN) has meanwhile asked former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid to help.
Gus Dur, a prominent Muslim scholar who once studied in Iraq, has good networks with other Muslim figures in the Middle East. He is set to attend an event in Iraq in April, his spokesman Adhie Massardi said.
Dino said that Indonesia was waiting for a response from the kidnappers after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has fulfilled their demand in explaining the presence of the reporters in Iraq.
The group of Iraqi captors demanded that the "Indonesian government explain what mission had brought the two journalists" to their country, which has been invaded by the United States, according to the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV station.
The group said it would not be responsible for the security of the two hostages if Jakarta did not respond to their request.
President Susilo held a press conference earlier on Saturday to meet the captors' demand shortly after the footage of the two journalists was aired by Al-Jazeera, saying the pair had no political agenda and were just seeking information on the plight of the Iraqi people.
Meutya's mother, Meitty Hafid accompanied by her two other daughters, made an emotional appeal on Metro TV for the pair's safe return.
"I pray to Allah for the safety of my daughter. I'm hoping that Meutya and Budiyanto can be freed. Meutya is a good, faithful Muslim," said Meitty, whose husband died nine months ago.
Wearing Muslim attire, she asked Meutya to be "patient and leave your fate to Allah".
People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Hidayat Nur Wahid joined calls for the safe release of the journalists, telling the captors that holding Indonesian journalists was wrong in light of Jakarta's stance.
"Indonesian journalists work to defend the interests of Iraqis. Therefore it is inappropriate that our journalists are taken hostage. I demand that they be freed," he said as quoted by AFP, repeating an appeal he made on Friday in Arabic on Al- Jazeera.
Hidayat pointed out that his Muslim-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) organized a protest by thousands of people against the Iraq invasion.
Home to the world's largest Muslim population, Indonesia was firmly opposed to the U.S.-led invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq.
The two reporters were abducted in Ramadi on their way from Jordan to Iraq early this week. They last contacted Metro TV on Tuesday while driving in a rented car to Karbala, chief editor Don Bosco Salamun said.