BBC journo now held for 1 month

2007-04-12 09:10

Gaza City - BBC correspondent Alan Johnston marks one month in captivity in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, the longest a kidnapped foreigner has been kept in the lawless territory where abductions have become common currency.

Johnston, a Scotsman who has been the BBC's main correspondent in Gaza for three years, was forced from his car at gunpoint as he drove home from work on March 12 in Gaza City.

But despite diplomatic efforts by Britain, numerous protests in the Palestinian territories and regular appeals for his release from Palestinian officials, the whereabouts of the 44-year-old seasoned reporter remain unknown.

"We feel angry and ashamed of the continuing of this kidnapping which we consider as a criminal act," Palestinian information minister Mustafa Barghuti told AFP.

"We are determined to start implementing our plan... (to) put an end to the lawlessness which led to the kidnapping of Alan Johnston," he said.

"The Palestinian government is co-operating ... with the security apparatus to secure his fast and secure release. We are also co-operating with the British government and we are calling for his immediate freedom," he said.

The Palestinian journalists' union has accused the government of not doing enough to secure the release of Johnston, who became the latest in a string of abducted journalists and foreign aid workers in Gaza.

The British government, the Arab League, European Union, media personalities and church leaders have all called on Johnston's kidnappers to release him, to no avail.

- AFP