Three Romanian journalists have been kidnapped in Baghdad. Romania has been a strong ally of the US in the Iraq effort and Romanian President Traian Basescu had just visited the country on Easter Sunday.
The three were abducted Monday night near their Baghdad hotel, officials said. They were identified as reporter Marie Jeanne Ion, 32, and cameraman Sorin Dumitru Miscoci, 30, from Bucharest-based television station Prima TV, and Romania Libera reporter Ovidiu Ohanesian, 37.
Also kidnapped was an Iraqi-American businessman who was acting as their guide and translator.
The three managed to send desperate text messages to relatives and colleagues just before disappearing on Monday.
"We're kidnapped. This is not a joke. Help!!!!," one of the three, Prima TV reporter Marie Jeanne Ion, managed to message her mother from her mobile phone, her mother Magdalena Ion told Realitatea TV on Tuesday.
Ion's cameraman Sorin Miscoci and journalist Ovidiu Ohanesian of the Romania Libera daily newspaper, all on a short reporting trip to Iraq, were also missing, authorities said.
President Traian Basescu said both local and foreign secret services had been alerted and he chaired a meeting of a crisis committee set up to handle the situation. "President Traian Basescu assures Romanians that Romania has the will and the capacity to defend its citizens," his spokeswoman Adriana Saftoiu said.
The kidnappings appeared to cause no immediate political backlash for Romania's role in Iraq, with offici"I would like to believe that only economic reasons triggered their situation. I don't want to believe that their kidnapping was politically motivated," said Simona Marinescu, an adviser to the Romanian embassy in Baghdad.als saying they suspected the motives were financial rather than political.
A crisis centre has been set up in Bucharest to handle the situation while Traian Basescu, president, said both local and foreign secret services had been alerted.
Dan Dumitru, news editor of Prima TV, said that he had heard Ms Ion desperately pleading with her kidnappers during a phone call.
"I heard her imploring the attackers not to kidnap them because they come from a poor country which won't be able to pay the ransom," he said.
More than 150 foreigners have been seized in Iraq over the past year. Most have been freed after negotiations or payment of ransom, but about a third have been killed. Many more Iraqis have been abducted, often for ransom.
While Westerners are transfixed by the occasional kidnapping of one of their own, Iraqis are far more vulnerable. As many as 5,000 Iraqis have been kidnapped in the past year and a half, say Western and Iraqi security officials.
Rusty at The Jawa Report has pictures and is updating his post here.
This post also available at Blogger News.
Comments