Ayatollah Sistani asked to help free kidnapped journalists

Reporters Without Borders has called on the Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, to do everything possible to obtain the release of kidnapped Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni and shed light on the disappearance of French journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot as part of the mediation he began today in Najaf. Baldoni, who went missing on 19 August, has been abducted by a group that calls itself the Islamic Army in Iraq. There has also been no word of Chesnot and Malbrunot for the past week. "We appeal to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani to use all of his authority to put an end to the tragic series of hostage-takings that has been accompanying the fighting in Najaf for nearly two weeks," the organisation said. "We ask him to try to secure Enzo Baldoni's release at a moment when the deadline given by his kidnappers is expiring, and to obtain information about the fate of the two French journalists who have gone missing." Reporters Without Borders pointed out that "journalists are impartial observers and messengers, whose work in Najaf and elsewhere has allowed and continues to allow the facts emerge." It also stressed that "journalists are civilians and should not be used as bargaining chips or as a way to apply political pressure." Baldoni, 56, works for the independent weekly Diario della Settimana. The pan-Arab TV news station Al-Jazeera broadcast a tape on 24 August in which members of a group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq claimed responsibility for his abduction and gave Italy 48 hours to withdraw its troops from Iraq. They did not say what they would do with Baldoni if Italy did not comply. Baldoni's children, Gabriella and Guido, appealed yesterday for his release in a message broadcast by the Italian public television service Rai Uno. The message, which was picked up Al-Jazeera, talked of a "man of peace" and insisted that Baldoni was in Iraq for humanitarian reasons. He had participated in the transport of medicine to Najaf in two convoys operated by the Red Crescent and the Italian Red Cross.