A little-known Islamist group claimed responsibility in an audio
recording Wednesday for abducting the BBC's Gaza correspondent,
issuing demands immediately rebuffed by the Palestinian
government.
As evidence that it is holding BBC correspondent Alan Johnston,
the group posted on the Internet a photo of his BBC identification
card.
The posting appeared to be the first tangible evidence that
Johnston, who disappeared on March 12 while driving his car in the
Gaza Strip, had been kidnapped. Johnston has been held captive
longer than any of the previous foreign journalists who have been
seized, and subsequently released, by gunmen in Gaza.
"We demand that Britain free our prisoners, particularly the
honorable Sheikh Abu Qatada al Filistini," said a speaker on the
audio recording, posted on the Internet by a group that calls
itself the "Jeish al-Islam", or Army of Islam. The authenticity of
the tape could not immediately be verified.
Abu Qatada, a radical Islamic cleric suspected of close links to
Al-Qaida, has been described by the British government as a
"significant international terrorist".
He is one of more than a dozen Arab men whom Britain has been
holding under detention or house arrest as threats to national
security, while acknowledging that it does not have sufficient
evidence to put them on trial.
The Special Immigration Appeals Commission in London ruled in
February Abu Qatada could be deported to Jordan, where he has been
convicted twice in absentia of involvement in terrorist plots,
despite the likelihood he would face a flawed trial.
The recording was posted on an Islamist website often used by
Al-Qaida and other militant groups, and was accompanied by what
appeared to be a picture of Johnston's BBC identification card.
The recording did not include any information about Johnston's
condition.
"We have not forgotten our prisoners in other infidel countries,
to whom we say: 'Free our prisoners or we will retaliate in the
same manner without discriminating'," said the speaker in the
recording.
The Army of Islam was one of three Palestinian groups, including
Hamas' armed wing, that were involved in last June's seizure of an
Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid from Gaza.
Mohammed al-Madhoun, a political advisor to Palestinian Prime
Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, said the demands made in the
audio recording were the same that the group presented privately to
the Palestinian government.
"These demands are beyond the boundaries of the Palestinian area
and I do not think they are doable," Madhoun said.
Madhoun said the British government had been made aware of the
captors' demands but he did not expect Britain to meet them.
(China Daily via agencies May 10, 2007)
