Italy stands firm after journalist is kidnapped

Italy’s government insisted Tuesday it will keep its troops in Iraq despite a demand by militants holding an Italian journalist hostage that Italian forces pull out within 48 hours.

The journalist, Enzo Baldoni, was shown apparently in the hands of extremists in Iraq on video footage broadcast by Al-Jazeera satellite television.

The militant group, calling itself “The Islamic Army in Iraq,” did not threaten Baldoni directly but said in a statement it could not guarantee his safety unless Italy announced within 48 hours that it will withdraw its troops from Iraq Al-Jazeera said.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s office responded that the 3,000 Italian troops would stay.

“We are committed to obtaining the freedom of Mr Baldoni, who is in Iraq for private work as a journalist and therefore absolutely not connected to our government,” the office said in a statement.

“We will do so while maintaining the commitments made to the Iraqi provisional government, which was legitimated through a Security Council resolution adopted unanimously last June.

“Therefore, we will continue our military and civilian presence within the framework established by that UN decision to contribute to the restoration of security and public order.”

Baldoni, 56, who went to Iraq as a freelance for the news magazine Diario, was reported missing on Friday by the Italian Foreign Ministry, which said he had not checked in with Italian officials in Iraq, as is customary. His last reported contact was Thursday.

Baldoni is a part-time journalist whose main job is as an advertising copy writer. On a web site he kept while in Iraq, Baldoni described himself as a “war tourist,” yet in other reported comments he has insisted he was not simply out for cheap thrills.

Over the past eight years, he has reported in Chiapas, Mexico, East Timor, Myanmarand Colombia. This was his first trip to Iraq.

Enrico Deaglio, editor in chief of Diario, said that he was relieved to see Baldoni looking healthy in the video. “He’s good, he’s in shape. He’s not humiliated and he can speak,” Deaglio said.

According to an Arabic translation of Baldoni’s comments on the video, he said he was a journalist as well as a volunteer for the Red Cross.

Deaglio said the magazine intended to “let the people who have him in custody know what Baldoni has done in the last 10 days in Iraq in his work to relieve the suffering of the Iraqi people.”