Marches in two Romanian cities in solidarity with journalists kidnapped in
Iraq
AP Worldstream
Apr 01, 2005
More than 100 journalists and residents of the Transylvanian city of
Sibiu marched Friday in solidarity with three Romanian journalists
kidnapped in Iraq as officials worked to secure their release.
Supporters marched through the medieval city center and past the
apartment building where the family of cameraman Sorin Miscoci lives.
Miscoci, 30, and reporter Marie Jeanne Ion, 32, who work for
Bucharest-based Prima TV, and Ovidiu Ohanesian, a journalist for the
daily newspaper Romania Libera, were kidnapped near their Baghdad
hotel earlier this week.
An unidentified group sent video to the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera
satellite TV network showing the three Romanian journalists and a
fourth person identified as Mohammed Monaf with guns pointed at them.
Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu said no demands have been made
yet.
On Friday, priests held a service in Sibiu, some 300 kilometers (185
miles) northwest of Bucharest, to pray for the safety and release of
the journalists.
In the northern city of Botosani, journalists gathered Friday in a
central square to pray for their colleagues.
The bishop of the county of Alba, Andrei Andreicut, called on
believers to pray for the journalists.
Romania’s ethnic Armenian community also called for their release and
appealed to Armenians worldwide for support. Ohanesian is ethnic
Armenian.
On Friday, still photos of the three in captivity, guarded by two
masked gunmen, were published and shown on Romanian TV stations but
Monaf was not with them. Monaf has Iraqi, U.S. and Romanian
citizenship.
Also Friday, President Traian Basescu met with the families of the
missing journalists and Monaf’s family.
“The president assures them personally that everything possible is
being done to secure their release,” said Adriana Saftoiu, Basescu’s
spokeswoman.
She said Basescu met with the heads of the domestic and foreign
intelligence service and Foreign Minister Mihai Razvan
Ungureanu. Romania has 800 troops in Iraq.
“I want you to understand that the Romanian state is making a huge
unprecedented effort” to obtain the freedom of the hostages, Ungureanu
said. He called for “patience and understanding” in the case.