"The journalists' kidnapping" by Mr. Basescu

As you already know from the news and also from my latest post, the kidnapping of Prima TV reporter Marie Jeanne Ion, cameraman Sorin Miscoci and daily Romania Libera reporter Ovidiu Ohanesian shocked the Romanian public this spring. The three journalists and Monaf, their guide and ‘sponsor’, were freed on May 22 after spending 55 days in captivity.

Traian Basescu, Romania's president said Monday the three Romanian journalists who spent nearly two months in captivity in Iraq were victims of a botched kidnapping plan by their Iraqi-American guide Munaf and the Syrian-born businessman - Omar Hayssam. The plan was meant to help Hayssam - who was banned from leaving Romania because he was under investigation for economic crimes - to leave Romania.

Munaf allegedly carried out the kidnapping with the help of some friends, but he lost control after a few days when a well organized Iraqi insurgent group intervened and took over the hostages, including himself, Basescu said Monday. Though Monaf is suspected of orchestrating the kidnapping, the former hostages have said he was held with them the entire time.

President Traian Basescu, who headed a crisis team that worked to free the journalists, provided the first play-by-play account of the kidnapping at a news conference where he detailed contacts between Romanian negotiators and the kidnappers.

On Monday, Basescu recounted critical moments during tense negotiations with media savvy kidnappers, when authorities did not know whether the journalists had been executed.

``On April 21, the kidnappers' negotiator said he would provide us with a Web site to watch the hostages being decapitated,'' he said. Two days later, however, a group calling itself Maadh Bin Jabal claimed responsibility for the kidnapping in a videotape aired on Al-Jazeera television. The video showed the hostages were still alive, but the kidnappers issued a public ultimatum for Romania to withdraw its 800 troops from Iraq.

Basescu said Romania refused to withdraw the troops and did not pay a ransom.

``I confess that the decision was extremely difficult because I knew that nothing justifies the loss of lives,'' said Basescu.


Basescu, who has previously warned that full disclosure may not come for 50 years, said the kidnappers also proposed exchanging the journalists for 20 Romanian soldiers serving in Iraq, or for Romanian help to try to obtain the release of some imprisoned Iraqis.

He said Romania offered instead to send humanitarian aid to Iraq, but did not say whether the kidnappers accepted that offer.

The president also criticized the three journalists for failing to follow security guidelines during their stay in Iraq.

The three journalists held a news conference last week, saying they spent most of the time blindfolded and crowded in a small cellar.

The kidnappers later said they freed the hostages after an appeal by Romania's Muslims and a prominent Saudi preacher.

Romanian prosecutors have issued arrest warrants on terrorism charges related to the kidnapping for Hayssam and Monaf, who is currently in U.S. custody in Iraq. Basescu said Romania has asked the United States to send Monaf to Romania to face charges, but that no agreement has been reached.

Hayssam is being detained in Bucharest on charges of economic crimes and terrorism.


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