ITALY: FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES OF ITALIAN JOURNALIST GIULIANA SGRENA HELD HOSTAGE IN IRAQ HOLD A PUBLIC HUNGER STRIKE OUTSIDE THE PRIME MINISTERS OFFICE IN ROME

Record ID: 588579

  • Title: ITALY: FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES OF ITALIAN JOURNALIST GIULIANA SGRENA HELD HOSTAGE IN IRAQ HOLD A PUBLIC HUNGER STRIKE OUTSIDE THE PRIME MINISTERS OFFICE IN ROME
  • Date: 1st March 2005
  • Summary: (EU)ROME, ITALY (MARCH 1, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. WS/SV: FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES OUTSIDE PRIME MINISTERS OFFICE (2 SHOTS) 0.09 2. CU'S: PEOPLE WEARING WHITE ARM BANDS (2 SHOTS) 0.15 3. MORE PEOPLE OUTSIDE 0.19 4. (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) DON LIUGI CIOTTI, PRIEST AND PRESIDENT OF LIBERA HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP SAYING: "We are here to hold a hunger strike for the liberation of Giuliana, the hostages, for the Iraqi population, even to have back the body of Enzo Baldoni. But, above all, to underline a commitment to justice we have made for the rights and for the liberation of all people." 0.38 5. PEOPLE TAPING A BANNER 0.44 6. CU: POSTER SHOWING PHOTO OF GIULIANA SGRENA 0.47 7. CU: MORE PEOPLE TAPING BANNER 0.51 8. BANNER READING GIULIANA WE ARE WAITING FOR YOU 0.55 9. SOUNDBITE) (Italian) VAURO SENESI, CARTOONIST FOR IL MANIFESTO SAYING: "We had the same impact as when we saw the video with Giuliana. It's an anguishing impact because you see a woman who is tried by her imprisonment, her suffering. Apart from this feeling, I think it is nonetheless a strong signal for hope because first of all we see her and also despite everything she appears lucid -- she seems herself -- something important if you consider the tough conditions of imprisonment she is under." 1.38 10. MORE OF PEOPLE GATHERED 1.40 11. (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) ALESSANDRA, FRIEND OF GIULIANA, SAYING: "I don't know how to this interpret this video. It was a known fact she was alive. And, secondly, I don't know what relationship there is with our Giuliana. I don't know what to think honestly. The others, like Vauro seem more optimistic." 2.00 12. CU: WOMAN DRAPED IN RAINBOW COLOURED PEACE FLAG 2.03 13. MORE PEOPLE GATHERED 2.06 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 16th March 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ROME, ITALY
  • Country: Italy
  • Reuters ID: LVA4TSOL1NRL408VOUP09RMDE3RF
  • Story Text: Friends and colleagues of the Italian journalist
    taken hostage in Iraq have held a public hunger strike.



    A small group of people turned out at the Prime
    Ministers office on Tuesday (March 01) to hold a public
    hunger strike, demanding the release of Italian journalist
    Giuliana Sgrena and other hostages.

    Italian Giuliana Sgrena, a reporter for Rome daily Il
    Manifesto, was abducted early last month as she conducted
    interviews in Baghdad. A tape of her pleading for her life
    was released nearly two weeks ago, but no word has been
    heard since.

    "We are here to hold a hunger strike for the
    liberation of Giuliana, the hostages, for the Iraqi
    population, even to have back the body of Enzo Baldoni",
    said Ciotti, President of Libera, a human rights group.

    "But, above all, to underline a commitment of justice
    we have made for the rights and for the liberation of all
    people", said Ciotti.

    The hunger strike took place as a new video showing
    kidnapped French journalist making a desperate appeal for
    help was released by Iraqi insurgents on Tuesday (March 1).

    Florence Aubenas, taken hostage with her driver in
    Baghdad more than seven weeks ago, spoke in English and
    appeared distraught and exhausted.

    "We had the same impact as when we saw the video with
    Giuliana, prominent Il Manifesto cartoonist", Vauro Senesi,
    told Reuters.

    "It's an anguishing impact because you see a woman who is
    tried by her imprisonment, her suffering. Apart from
    this feeling, I think it is nonetheless a strong signal for
    hope because first of all we see her and also despite
    everything she appears lucid -- she seems herself --
    something important if you consider the tough conditions of
    imprisonment she is under", said Senesi.

    The tape underlined Iraq's desperate security situation
    a day after a suicide bomber killed 125 people south of
    Baghdad in the single deadliest attack since Saddam
    Husseins fall.

    "I don't know how to this interpret this video", said
    Alessandra, friend of Giuliana Sgrena.

    "It was a known fact she was alive. And, secondly, I
    don't know what relationship there is with our Giuliana. I
    don't know what to think honestly. The others, like Vauro
    seem more optimistic", she said.

    The tape is the first of Aubenas to be released since
    she and her Iraqi driver Hussein Hanun al-Saadi were seized
    in Baghdad on January 5 and the first indication that she
    at least is
    alive. The driver does not appear in the tape.

    Italy's small contingent of foreign correspondents in
    Iraq left the country last month after Rome warned of
    threats against the media and urged them to return home.

    Several hundred thousand people marched in Rome last
    month to demand the Italian journalists' release and the
    withdrawal of Italy's forces from Iraq, but Italian Prime
    Minister Silvio Berlusconi said the troops would stay.


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