RI seeks release of two kidnapped journalists
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.