An undated picture from Romanian television station Prima TV, shows one of their cameramen Sorin Dumitru Miscoci, 30, one of the three Romanian journalists who were allegedly kidnapped Monday March 28, 2005 in Baghdad Iraq. The others are Bucharest daily Romania Libera reporter Ovidiu Ohanesian, 37 and reporter Marie Jeanne Ion, 32, also of Prima TV. They went missing the Iraqi capital shortly after an interview with interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, the newspaper's director Petre Mihai Bacanu told The Associated Press. (AP Photo/PrimaTV)
Tue, Mar 29, 2005 (15 minutes ago)
By ALEXANDRU ALEXE, Associated Press Writer
BUCHAREST, Romania - Three Romanian journalists had finished interviewing Iraq's interim prime minister hours earlier when one of them sent an ominous text message back to her newsroom: "Help, this is not a joke, we've been kidnapped."
The three were abducted Monday night near their Baghdad hotel, officials said Tuesday — the latest journalists to be taken hostage in Iraq.
They were identified as reporter Marie Jeanne Ion, 32, and cameraman Sorin Dumitru Miscoci, 30, from Bucharest-based television station Prima TV, and Romania Libera reporter Ovidiu Ohanesian, 37.
Petre Mihai Bacanu, managing editor of Romania Libera newspaper, said the three disappeared late Monday, shortly after interviewing interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
Bacanu said no group had claimed responsibility and no ransom demand had been made.
The three were abducted about 8:30 p.m. from a street next to the hotel, which is not in the city's heavily fortified Green Zone, a hotel employee who works at the reception desk told The Associated Press by telephone.
A group from the Romanian Embassy told the hotel staff that their driver reported the three had been kidnapped, the employee said. The hotel, where other foreign journalists also stay, is in Baghdad's upscale Jadriya neighborhood and is surrounded by a concrete barrier, he said.
A Prima TV statement said Ion called the newsroom, speaking a mixture of Romanian, Arabic and English, and was heard apparently talking to her abductors.
"Don't kill us, we are from a poor country and we have no money," the statement quoted her as saying.
She later sent a text message to the station, saying, "Help, this is not a joke, we've been kidnapped."
Dumitru said Ion had called during an editorial meeting, and he put the phone on speaker.
"Marie-Jeanne was begging in English and in Arabic 'to be left alone,'" he said. "Their translator said that they were from Romania, a poor country and don't have money to pay a ransom."
"All I know they have been taken by force and we can't reach them any more," Dumitru told private television station Realitatea TV.
President Traian Basescu made a surprise visit Sunday to Iraq, where Romania has 800 troops, but they were not traveling with him.
Dan Dumitru, news director at Prima TV, said the two broadcast journalists were in Iraq for five days to interview Allawi and interim President Ghazi al-Yawer.
Bacanu said Ohanesian "had just had an interview with the prime minister and he told me he wanted to do some features, but I told him not to do that and to come back."
Basescu, who was in Iraq and Afghanistan for two days visiting troops, said on his return to Bucharest that his government was doing all it could to find the journalists. He said Romania had sought the help of U.S.-led coalition authorities in Iraq.
Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu said he had set up a crisis center to coordinate attempts to free the three.
No Romanian forces have been lost in Iraq, and their presence there has not so far been a sensitive issue at home.
But a Romanian political commentator said the kidnappings could undermine public support for Romania's role there.
"It will be a shock for the public. It is the first time something like this has happened. If Romanian authorities do not manage to free the journalists it will harm the support that Basescu enjoys," said Stelian Tanase by telephone.