Mahmoud Abbas told of concern about Gaza insecurity in open letter

President Mahmoud Abbas Office of the President of the Palestinian Authority Ramallah PALESTINE Paris, 25 August 2005 Reporters Without Borders, an international organisation that defends press freedom, would like to express its warmest appreciation to you for all the efforts you undertook to help bring about the release of TV soundman Mohammed Ouathi of the French television station France 3. Our organisation would like to take this opportunity to draw your attention to the climate of insecurity that exists for journalists working in Gaza. As we were reminded by Mr. Ouathi's abduction, people working for the news media are often the target of criminals in Gaza and elsewhere. Following the withdrawal of the Israeli settlers, journalists from all of the world are continuing to converge on Gaza in order to cover the return of these territories to the Palestinian Authority's control. We fear that this could lead to a new wave of kidnappings. It is vital that effective measures are taken at once to ensure the security and physical safety of journalists. We are at your disposal if you would like to discuss with us how best to protect them. Furthermore, we are planning to visit Gaza in the coming weeks, which would allow us to meet you. We would also like to ask you to do everything possible to shed light on the circumstances in which Mr. Ouathi was kidnapped. He spent eight days in captivity before being freed on 22 August and in all this time no group publicly claimed responsibility for his abduction. This kidnapping must not go unpunished. To prevent any recurrence of such criminal activity, it is important that those responsible should not benefit from any impunity and should answer for their crimes before the law. We trust you will give these requests your careful consideration.