Forty days since BBC's Alan Johnston was kidnapped in Gaza

On the 40th day since BBC correspondent Alan Johnston's abduction in Gaza, Reporters Without Borders today called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to urge his kidnappers to produce evidence that he is still alive. “We continue to be worried about Johnston's fate and we call on President Abbas and Prime Minister Haniyeh to coordinate their efforts to obtain his release as soon as possible,” the press freedom organisation said. Abbas yesterday said the Palestinian intelligence services had information indicating Johnston is still alive. “We want to obtain the release of Alan Johnston, who is our friend,” Abbas said. “We want him to be freed unhurt, without physical or psychological injury.” There are seven official security services in the Palestinian Territories. Four of them are directly dependent on the president. The other three take their orders from the prime minister. These groups have often clashed in the course of the rivalry between Hamas and Fatah. Kidnappers' demands Six of the 14 abductions of journalists in the Gaza Strip since early 2005 have been claimed by various groups. When three journalists - Caroline Laurent, Alfred Yaghobzadeh and Yong Tae-young - were kidnapped on 14 March 2006 and held overnight, an armed group close to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and claiming to belong to the “Jericho Brigades” said their abduction was a reprisal for an Israeli army raid on a prison in the West Bank city of Jericho to capture PFLP chief Ahmad Saadat. A few months later, Fox News journalists Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig were kidnapped in Gaza on 14 August 2006. This abduction was claimed by a hitherto unknown group calling itself the Holy Jihad Brigades, which released a video showing the two captives and demanding that the United States release “Muslim prisoners” within 72 hours. Centanni and Wiig were finally set free after two weeks. There is still no official word as to the identity of Johnston's kidnappers. Some Palestinian political leaders have said they have had no contact with them. But Prime Minister Haniyeh has said the kidnappers are not politically motivated and are making “personal demands” which he has refused to reveal. President Abbas has said he knows the group holding Johnston but has refused to say whether it is the “Monotheism and Jihad Brigades,” the group that claimed to have executed him in a statement sent to the press on 15 April.