The BBC said on Thursday it has been assured by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that its Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston, kidnapped a month ago, is ”safe and well”, and again appealed for his release.
”I appeal to all those who may have influence with the kidnappers to use their best endeavours to secure Alan’s release safely and speedily,” BBC director general Mark Thompson told a press conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
”I would appeal to the people holding Alan Johnston to release him immediately,” he said, on what the BBC said was a ”day of action” being held to highlight its correspondent’s plight.
There has been no word on the fate of Johnston (44) since he was forced from his car at gunpoint as he drove home from work in Gaza City exactly one month ago on March 12 — the longest a Westerner has been held in the volatile territory.
Thompson said the British broadcaster is ”increasingly concerned about the physical and mental toll his incarceration must be taking on him”.
He said he had met the Palestinian president on Wednesday evening. Abbas ”told me that he had credible evidence that Alan was safe and well. He assured me that the Palestinian authorities are fully engaged with Alan’s case and are working to resolve it as soon as possible,” Thompson said.
At the press conference, Thompson said the BBC has not had any contact with those holding Johnston, who has reported from Gaza for three years and was one of the few Western journalists to be permanently based in the territory.
”Alan has demonstrated his commitment to the accurate reporting of Gaza and its people … It is absolutely in the interests of people of Gaza and Palestine as a whole that he should be released immediately and without harm. There is no possible justification for abducting a journalist in this way.”
Journalists’ convoy
Palestinian journalists, who have held numerous protests in support of Johnston over the past month, on Thursday drove a convoy of 30 cars with Johnston’s picture to government and security offices in Gaza City, shouting ”Free Alan Johnston!” The BBC was also to hold a simultaneous broadcast with CNN, Sky, and al-Jazeera as part of its ”day of action” marking the one-month anniversary.
At a news conference in London, Johnston’s father, Graham, made an emotional appeal to his son’s abductors. ”You have families. Please think about what this is doing to my family, including in particular the distress and deep, deep concern Alan’s mother and sister have had to endure for all these long weeks,” he said.
”As I have said before — please — let my son go, now, today!” he said, flanked by his wife and BBC staff.
Former British hostage Terry Waite, who spent four years in captivity in Lebanon two decades ago, also appealed for his release, saying it is ”politically suicidal” if Johnston remains in captivity.
”Kidnapping gangs can only keep captives if they have support of the local community,” Waite said on Sky News television. ”I would like to make an appeal to every Palestinian: do what you can now to bring this to an end.”
The British government, the Arab League, European Union, media personalities and church leaders have all called on Johnston’s kidnappers to let him go.
On April 5, Britain’s consul general in Jerusalem, Richard Makepeace, met Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya of Hamas — despite an international boycott of the Islamist group — to discuss efforts to free Johnston.
Johnston, whose posting in Gaza was due to end in April and had previously reported for the BBC from Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, became the latest of about 20 foreigners to have been seized in Gaza over the past year.
Hostages in Gaza are usually used as bargaining chips to gain concessions from the Palestinian Authority, and so far all have been released unharmed. — Sapa-AFP