Hundreds gather in Romania, urge release of kidnapped journalists

Hundreds of people gathered in downtown Bucharest Sunday afternoon to call for the release of three Romanian journalists kidnapped in Iraq.

Carrying banners with the hostages' pictures, they urged the kidnappers to free the three hostages and some asked the Romanian government to pull its troops out of Iraq.

On Friday, the Qatar-based al-Jazeera TV channel broadcast a video showing the hostages saying their Iraqi captors would kill them unless the Romanian government withdraw its troops from Iraq within four days.

The three journalists -- Prima TV reporter Marie-Jeanne Ion, 32,cameraman Sorin Dumitru Miscoci, 30, and Romanian Libera daily reporter Ovidiu Ohanesian, 37, were abducted in Baghdad on March 28 with their Iraqi-American translator Mohammed Monaf.

Families and relatives of the hostages also joined Sunday's gathering.

A new poll conducted by the polling agency CURS shows that 70 percent of Romanians favor withdrawing the troops from Iraq to save the lives of the journalists, while 18 percent say the troops should stay.

Romanian President Traian Basescu met the families of the hostages in the presidential palace on Saturday. The president, who cut short a visit to Moldova after learning of the abduction, did not comment on the kidnappers' demand, but said his country will spare no effort to free the hostages.

Romania has about 850 troops in Iraq, and so far there is no scheduled date for their pullout. The government said it wants to keep them in Iraq until the country's situation becomes stable.

Source: Xinhua