Thousands to march for journo

2005-02-19 08:50

Rome - As many as 200 000 people were expected to take part in a demonstration in Rome on Saturday to demand the release of an Italian journalist kidnapped in Iraq earlier this month.

The demonstration comes amid an outpouring of support following a video showing the captive, 56-year-old Giuliana Sgrena, pleading for her life.

"On the train I've already found many people who said they would come," the hostage's father, Franco Sgrena, told reporters after he arrived at Rome's Termini station on Friday evening ahead of the march.

"I am very happy for the solidarity that has come from all over," he added.

Sgrena was abducted in Baghdad on February 4. On Wednesday, in a video delivered anonymously to Associated Press Television News, she was shown pleading for her life and calling for the pullout of foreign troops in Iraq, including the 3 000-strong Italian contingent.

The march in Rome was organised by Sgrena's paper Il Manifesto and by her companion, Pier Scolari. It was expected to start at 14:00.

Il Messaggero, a Rome daily, as well as Il Manifesto said that about 200 000 people were expected to take part, including 2 000 journalists expressing solidarity with their colleague.

Demonstrators will walk by the Colosseum, the Piazza Venezia in central Rome and other streets downtown, forcing the city to shut down or reroute some buses.

On Friday, Scolari and Sgrena's colleagues at Il Manifesto also put together a video that illustrates the journalist's work in Iraq and her anti-war stance, the latest move in efforts to highlight her pacifist convictions.

The video will be provided to Arab-language TV networks, said Scolari.

Appeals for the release of Sgrena have poured in since her kidnapping.

On Friday, a top Vatican official renewed an appeal made by Pope John Paul II on Sunday.

"We beg that she be freed immediately and given back to her family," said the Vatican's foreign minister, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, according to Italian news agencies ANSA and Apcom.

Lajolo reportedly added that the Vatican "has knocked on all doors," but that no contacts have been established.

La Gazzetta dello Sport, Italy's largest sports paper, said the country's top soccer leagues will join the appeal this weekend with players walking onto the pitch with T-shirts calling for the journalist's release.

Italy's Premier Silvio Berlusconi has said there's reason for optimism, but has not released details over government moves to obtain Sgrena's release.

- AP