Appeal to Iraqi ambassador in Paris after five months of captivity for al-Sumariya journalists

Reporters Without Borders' Secretary-General Robert Ménard and journalist and former hostage in Iraq Florence Aubenas, met Iraqi ambassador in Paris, Mowafak Abboud, to appeal for his help in finding two journalists of al-Sumariya TV who will have been held hostage for five months on 1st July 2006. Journalist Rim Zeid and her colleague Marwan Khazaal were abducted by four armed men on 1st February 2006 as they left a press conference at the headquarters of the Iraqi Islamic Party in the Yarmuk district of Baghdad. Al-Sumariya has had no news of them since. "We wanted to meet you with Florence Aubenas because she knows what the hostages must be going through. We have unfortunately been disappointed by the relative lack of international campaigning for these two journalists,” Ménard told the ambassador. “The fantastic solidarity shown for Florence Aubenas and Hussein Hanoun should continue for these Iraqi journalists, Rim Zeid and Marwan Khazaal", he said. “We met the Iraqi vice-president, Adel Abdel Mehdi, a few days ago, who expressed both his solidarity and his powerlessness,” he added. Referring to her attachment to Iraq, Florence Aubenas said that it was essential to support local journalists. “Nationality is important, you need to campaign twice as hard. I would like to send a message of solidarity to my Iraqi colleagues,” she added. The ambassador said he would send these messages of solidarity to Iraqi jounralists. “What is happening in Iraq is very sad,” he said. “There are parties who want to silence the press. We are encouraged by the presence of Florence Aubenas here. I thank her personally for her attachment to Iraq despite all she has suffered. We are very touched by this initiative.” Three months after his kidnapping on 4 April, there is also no news of Salah Jali al-Gharraoui, an Iraqi employee of Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Baghdad. The news agency has no knowledge of any demand from kidnappers and still do not know who is holding him. Elsewhere, on 29 June 2006, police found the body of freelance cameraman Osama Qadeer, who worked for US TV Fox News. He was abducted by an unknown group in al-Shaab, eastern Baghdad on 25 June. A total of 99 journalists have been killed in Iraq since March 2003, and 48 have been kidnapped. Of these, five have been killed by their captors, four Iraqis and Italian Enzo Baldoni.